Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN HENRY PEARCY 13/1227. Born in Hollym in January 1897, John was the fourth of six children to John and Ann Pearcy of 67 Buckingham Street, Hull. A Farm Tennant by trade he worked land out east of Hull before the war, but signed up to fight for King and Country as soon after his 18th birthday as he could get to City Hall and queue. He originally joined the 13th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, “T’Others”, 4th Hull Pals, but was transferred to the 11th when the two merged in February 1918. John was there during all the major campaigns of the Pal’s war from Egypt through the Somme to Oppy Wood and the Spring Offensive; he took it all and came through it unscathed only to be felled by something so small not one of his comrades would ever see it. They knew what it did though, and as 1918 progressed they would see it more and more, the coughing, the seizures, the face turning blue- Spanish Flu killed more people than the war ever would. John is buried in Duhallow ADS Cemetery; he was 21 years old.
His name is listed on Hull’s Aldboro Street, Roll of Honour and the Hollym WW1 Memorial.
