218339 2nd Lt. John McIntyre MM & Bar.British Army 6th Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment John McIntyre was born in Choppington Northumberland in 1894. He joined the East Yorkshire Battalion in 1914 aged 20 as a private. He landed in Suvla Bay on 8th August 1915 and spent 4 months surviving the cold, lack of food and the Turkish guns until he left on 19th December for Mudros.
In January 1916 he was made sergeant and by February his unit was defending the Suez Canal. The Middle of May they embarked from Egypt to Marseilles via Malta. They arrived at St. Pol on 13th July 1916.
In the following year and three months John was awarded the Military Medal and Bar and moved through some of the more famous battle grounds as listed in his war diary.
On 13th December 1917 John McIntyre returned to England.and was noted as a candidate for admission to Officer Cadet in the Royal Air Force. He had two letters from King George inviting him to become an officer of the Royal Air Force in September 1918.
In 1919 he relinquished his Royal Air Force Commission. At some stage during his war service he had broken his ankle and never had it set so he suffered from this injury later in life. He had shrapnel wounds on his face but like many men never talked fully about what happened.
We heard about the Turkish throwing bombs which they threw back if they had time. We saw that he was not afraid of rats and that he could kill them with his bare hands. He never bragged about his medals so we didn't know how he won them and he is mentioned in the regimental diary and the date but not what he had done to deserve them.
I expect he thought people would not believe what or where he had been because his regiment had been to a lot of fighting arenas. The final thing I have learnt from the study is that John's elder brother James was in the same regiment as him and he was killed on the 11th August 1917 so he probably didn't want to talk about any of it in case it upset his parents.
John's only son Hoodless Robinson McIntyre, a Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders, was killed on 26th September 1944 in the mountains of the Gallic Line and is buried in the War Cemetery in Fienza, Italy. John died in 1979 in Bradford.
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