256254 Pte. John Northover British Army 7th Btn. Leicestershire Regiment from:23 Swyre, Dorset (d.3rd September 1918) John Northover spent his childhood in the cottage next to ours. He went to the village school and joined his father, Enos, on the estate farm when he left school. He was 18 in the Spring of 1917 and was conscripted into the Army at Ealing. I don't know why he was drafted into the Leicester Regiment but my understanding is that, towards the end of the war, men were often simply placed in regiments where there were shortages irrespective of their home county.
As a young man from a small village above the English Channel everything must have felt very strange.
Whether he ever had leave to return home for a few days again I don't know. He was killed on 3rd of September 1918 and is buried in Rethel Military Cemetery, France.
His father asked for 'Peace, Perfect Peace' to be engraved on his headstone. His parents received £22 2 4d (including £6 10s War Gratuity) owing to their son after the war.
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