John Robert Wingfield

A Private with the 9th Battalion, John died on 9th of April 1917 at the age of 23.

John was born at Mutford on 20 April 1893, a son of George and Elizabeth Wingfield. He was baptised at Saint John the Baptist Church, Barnby, on 4 September 1893. His father died in 1895. From 14 March 1898 John was a pupil at Cunningham School. In 1900 his family lived at Kessingland Road and in 1901 at Hall Farm, London Road, Pakefield. In 1911 John worked as a brickyard labourer and lived with his brother George, and sister Elizabeth, at 12 Pretoria Terrace, Rock Estate, Oulton Broad. 

John was living at Kessingland when he volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft in 1914. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 13309, and was posted to the 9th Battalion. He arrived in France, with the battalion, on 30 August 1915.

John was wounded in early 1916, and his name appears in the War Office Daily List 21 February 1916. He was wounded, for a second time, in August/September 1916 and his name appears in the War Office Daily List 11 October 1916.

On 8 April 1917 the 9th Battalion took over front line trenches near Vermelles. The battalion’s war diary records that four men were killed and one officer and six men wounded on 8 April and one man was wounded on 9 April.

We do not know precisely when, or how, John was wounded, but because he died of wounds at 18 Field Ambulance, Vermelles, on 9 April, it is highly likely that he was one of the men wounded on 8 or 9 April.