Miton Keynes Teenage Heroes - MK Today Sunday 22nd January 2023

Milton Keynes Teenage Heroes

Sunday 22^nd January 2023

MK Today this week is MK THREE Days !  Yesterday I spoke about young boys giving their teenage lives for King and Country and shared the list of our sixteen and seventeen year old ancestors whose names can be found on Milton Keynes war memorials. CLICK HERE to read that edition. Today I would ask you to take the TWELVE eighteen year olds and place them into your heart,

1916 Private 2585 John Cox 2^nd/1^st Buckinghamshire Battalion of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Died of wounds Tuesday 25^th July 1916 at the age of eighteen years. Resident of Fenny Stratford. Named on Fenny Stratford and Bletchley War Memorial. Private Cox is buried in Merville Communal Cemetery Nord France Plot XI Row B Grave 20.

1916 Private 3844 Albert Victor Mander 1^st/1^st Buckinghamshire Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Died Friday 14^th August 1916 at the age of eighteen years. Named on Wolverton and Old Wolverton War Memorial. Sion of Mrs Annie Mander Grinley Cottage Stony Stratford. Private Mander has no known grave. He is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial Somme France Pier and Face 10A and 10D.

1916 Private 22516 Archibald Thomas Betts 8^th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, Died of wounds Saturday 30^th September 1916 at the age of nineteen years. Resident of Bletchley. Listed on Fenny Stratford and Bletchley War Memorial. Private Betts is buried in Grove Town Cemetery Somme France Plot I Row K Grave 19.

1917 Private 286200 Antcliffe Edward Burton 2^nd/1^st Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars. Died Wednesday 28^th March 1917 at the age of eighteen years. Son of William Burton of School House Bow Brickhill. Named on Radcliffe School War Memorial and Bow Brickhill War Memorial. Private Burton is buried Bow Brickhill All Saints Churchyard.

1917 Private 85027 John Thomas Cross 28^th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) Formerly 26736 Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Killed in action Friday 21^st September 1917 at the age of eighteen years. Son of George and Maria Cross 1 High Street Stantonbury. Named on New Bradwell War Memorial. Private Cross is buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery Zonnebeke West-Vlaanderen Blegium Grave LII F 4.

1918 Private 537254 Cyril Stapleton 15^th (County of London) Battalion (P.W.O. Civil Service Rifles) London Regiment (Listed on the memorial as Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment) Died in England Saturday 19^th January 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Son of William and Jane Stapleton of Kypersley Wolverton Road Newport Pagnell. Named on Newport Pagnell War Memorial. He is buried in Newport Pagnell Burial Ground.

1918 Private 378668 Ernest John Homans 333^rd Area Employment Officer Labour Corps Formerly 45620 Worcester Regiment and TR/9/35210 4^th Battalion Training Reserve. Died Saturday 6^th April 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Son of William and Elizabeth Homans 33 Priory Street Newport Pagnell. Named on Newport Pagnell War Memorial. Private Homans is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery Pas de Calais France Grave XXIII E 29A.

1918 Private 38024 Herbert Wilfred Goodman 1^st/5^th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Formerly 7/14497 Training Reserve. Killed in action Wednesday 17^th April 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Son of Arthur and Maude Goodman 12 Spring Gardens Newport Pagnell. Named on Newport Pagnell War Memorial. Private Goodman has no known grave. He is commemorated on Loos Memorial Pas de Calais France Panel 68.

1918 Private PLY/2648(S) John Thomas Tansley Plymouth Division Royal Marine Light Infantry. Died from disease at Plymouth Wednesday 5^th May 1918 at the age of eighteen years and five months. Son of Joseph and Ellen Tansley of Cross End Wavendon. Named on Wavendon Saint Mary War Memorial. Private Tansley is buried in Saint Mary’s Churchyard Wavendon.

1918 Private Frank Brantom (Listed as Brantom on SDGW – Soldiers Died Great War) 2^nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment. Killed in action Thursday 22^nd August 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Son of Joseph and Mary Brantom 25 Wolverton Road Newport Pagnell. Private Brantom is buried in Beacon Cemetery Saily-Laurette Somme France Grave VI E5.

1918 Private 50868 J F Ives (Probably James Frederick Ives) 1^st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Died of wounds 30^th August 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Named on Newport Pagnell War Memorial. Private Ives is buried in Lingy-St Flochel British Cemetery Averdoingt Pas de Calais France Grave III A 31.

1918 Private 59964 Arthur Harold Holmes 5^th (Reserve) British Territorial Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Died in England in service Friday 1^st November 1918 at the age of eighteen years. Son of William and Annie Holmes 37 Great Brickhill, Named on Great Brickhill War Memorial. Private Holmes is buried In Great Brickhill Church Cemetery.

How old would John, Albert, Archibald, Antcliffe, John, Cyril, Ernest, Herbert, John, Frank, James and Arthur be if they were still alive today ? You can do the Mathematics if you wish but the answer is they are all EIGHTEEN years old. Happy, smiling teenagers who never knew adult life. Happy young men is how we should remember them. Happy young men is how I would ask you to place them in your heart.

Tomorrow MK Today will introduce you to the FORTY-SIX nineteen year olds whose names can be found our City’s war memorials.

Without their being born, without their giving their lives there would be no City of Milton Keynes.