Current Information:

Age-26

9, Old Woolwich Road, East Greenwich

Born-Greenwich

Merville Communal Cemetery, France

On 2nd December 1914, the 2nd West Yorkshire battalion of 23rd Brigade, 8th Division went into the front line from Pont Logy to Chapigny, a mile north of Neuve Chapelle and for the next three weeks spent three day spells in the trenches here followed by three days in billets in reserve. The first seventeen days here were uneventful and there is no information concerning the death of John Blakeley who died from wounds on 11th December. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.