John Pottage was born in 1876 the son of Francis and Ellen, nee Simpson. By 1891 they were living at 37 Charnwood Road and by 1901 the family had moved to 1 Thornfield Place, Eccleshill. On the 17th of June 1899 at St Peter Parish Church John married Lucy Haigh who had been born in Bradford in 1877. John was 22 years of age, a commercial traveller in soap living at 3 Killinghall Place, Undercliffe. Lucy was 21 years of age, a dressmaker living at 5 Burton Street and the daughter of John Oldfield Haigh, a stuff warehouseman. As a territorial John had then enlisted to fight in the Boer War. In 1901 Lucy and their son Francis Haigh Pottage born in 1900 were living with her parents whilst John was away in South Africa. Lucy

died later that summer aged 23 years. In 1905 John married again in Bradford to Emily Jackman who had been born in Shawforth, Lancs. in 1874 and they had one child, Fred born in 1906. In 1911 John and Emily were living at 7 Ounsworth Street off Wakefield Road although John’s family had remained in Eccleshill. John was working as a mohair seal manufacturer’s machine man and on his enlistment in 1914 was employed by Scott’s Engineering Works. John enlisted on the 5th of August 1914 along with his brother Francis. He became Company Sergeant Major 205 in 1/6th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince

of Wales Own). His Regiment landed in Boulogne on the 15th of April 1915 for the Western Front and was involved in the Battle of Ypres from the 22nd of April to the 25th of May 1915. From the end of the Battles of Ypres until the September opening of the Battle of Loos there was no general change in the situation on the Western Front. It was a period of static warfare, where the army suffered average losses of 300 men a day from sniping and shellfire. John was killed by a sniper on the 19th of July 1915. He was 38 years of age. His widow Emily received a letter from Major Clough who said “I am very sorry to inform you that your husband was killed by a German

sniper yesterday morning. “He was hit in the head and never recovered consciousness and suffered no pain. We buried him in the trench cemetery. “We shall feel the loss very much. He was always cheerful and absolutely fearless and never spared himself in working for the efficiency and comfort of the Company”. His body was obviously not recovered for re-burial as he is remembered on the Ypres Memorial. John left his effects to Emily who received £8.1.8d on the 2nd of February 1916 and a War Gratuity of £10.10.0d on the 29th of July 1919.

. Researched and written by Jean Britteon, to whom many thanks