WHITING, Samuel John


No.13942, Private, John WHITING
Aged 21


8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Died of his Wounds on 7th August 1916


Samuel John Whiting was born in Hessett on 29th December 1894 (1st qtr 1895 Stow 4a:844), son of Emily WHITING

1901 census...Aged 6, he was at Old House, Hessett with his grandfather Elijah Catchpole [66] farm labourer, his grandmother Eliza [74]; his mother Emily WHITING [32]. All were born in Hessett.

1911 census...Aged 16, an under gardener, he was at The Street, Drinkstone with his widower grandfather Elijah CATCHPOLE; his mother and his half brother Ernest Edward[7] born Hessett.

On the pension card his mother was at Drinkstone.



He enlisted in Drinkstone. He died from his wounds when a patient at the Military Hospital in Fulham.
The 8th Suffolks had missed the carnage of the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st, being in Reserve.
On 20th July, the day the Bury Free Press reports he was wounded, the battalion were consolidating their line at Longueval which had been the objective of a counter attack on 19th. That counter attack on Longueval village and Delville Wood failed, but they did advance 300 yards further into the village. The 20th was spent digging in and holding on.





John Whiting is buried in Hessett (St Ethelbert's) Churchyard Spec. Mem.
He is also commemorated on Drinkstone War Memorial. The special memorial records the fact that the headstone does not mark his actual grave. His grave is elswhere in the churchyard, either lost or it was not possible to place a CWGC headstone there.

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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