John Hellen

A Private with the 15th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Battalion, John died on 5th of September 1918 aged 20. 

John was born at Kirkley on 12 March 1898, a son of Edith Hellen. John is not shown in the 1901 but on 18 March 1901 he joined Kirkley School, and his family lived at 90 Carlton Road. By 1906 he was living with his grandparents at Savoy Cottage, Saint John’s Road, and he attended Saint John’s School from 19 March 1906 to 1911. By 1911 John’s mother was living at 1 Market Place, Kessingland, and she sometimes used the surname Bird.   

John enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Yeomanry, service number 2301, and was posted to his regiment in the Middle East. In 1917 the Suffolk Yeomanry became the 15th Battalion Suffolk Regiment and John was renumbered 320307. On 7 May 1918 his battalion arrived in France. He was killed in action in the attack to take Larris Trench and advance toward Templeux-la-Fosse, north-east of Peronne, and he was buried where he fell. John’s grave, at map reference 62c.J.4.c.5.2. was marked with a cross and after the war he was reburied at Peronne. Bernard Mann, also of Lowestoft, was in John’s battalion and died at the same place and on the same day as John and was buried in an adjacent grave. 

See also Lowestoft St Margarets War Memorial.