Biography of Private John Richard Stevenson
9541 – 1st/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Formerly 9541 – 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Died 8th September 1917

Mother

• Name: Mary Ellen Worsdall
• DOB: 1870
• Place Of Birth: Bourne, Lincolnshire, England
• Marriage: 1896 Bourne District

Relatives in services

• John’s cousin Percy Edward Stevenson also fought and were killed in WW1. Percy can be found on our page dedicated to the Bourne War Memorial.

Marriage

• No marriage for John has been found and because of his age we can assume that he never had the opportunity to marry.

Newspaper Mentions

• Grantham Journal Saturday 4th November 1916
  LINCOLNSHIRE REGIMENT CASULTIES
  N.C.O.’S and men
  Wounded – Bonnett 22868 W. (Grantham), Carter 22959 J.H. (Grantham_, Chantry 9815 G. (Grantham), Chappell 15881 F. (Stamford), Cooper 22870 F. (Osbournby), Atkinson R.W. (Folkingham), Harris W. (Castle Bytham). Hill G. (Bourne), Lound G. H. (Little Bytham), Stevenson J. (Bourne), Watts S. (Bourne), Woolmer Lance-Corporal C. (Bourne).

• Grantham Journal Saturday 30th December 1916
  On the Somme.
  Pie. F. Hinson (son of Mr. Jabez Hinson, Wood View, Bourne), who has been through the campaign in Flanders, the Egyptian Desert, Gallipoli, and now the Western Front, writing on Dec. 9th to .Mr J. J.Davies, says:— “Just now in hospital. enjoying a little rest from the trenches. We get a good night’s rest here. It is change from looking over the parapet watching the star-lights go up and looking for Fritz coming to have a look at Us. But when he does come he mostly gets a shock. We are always ready give him hearty welcome with our machine guns and few rounds rapid from our bondhurk. I am looking forward in the time when I get to Bourne again to see all at home, and all old friends. Really, it seems more like sixteen years than sixteen months since I left England for the Peninsula. So you had the Somme battle on the ‘Pictures’ at Bourne. It would give the public good idea of what it was like. But it would not make them realise anything like what it being in it. I shall never forget Sept. 25th. ai mid-day, when we were given the order for going  “over the top.” It was the sight of a lifetime. Anyone would have thought it impossible for living soul to go where we went. What with shells and bullets, one could not hear one’s own voice. I am sorry to say my platoon officer killed. I was next to him. He had only got about 50 yards when he was shot through the chest. It was day of all days. That was day that young Stevenson (of Wood View) was wounded. I was talking to his sergeant, who spoke very highly of him and said he ought to have been recommended for his good work. I did not get chance to see him after was hit. But I am pleased to hear he is in England, and going on well. The weather has not been what it might have been. We have had lot of rain and dull weather lately. I was surprised to hear P. P. was in England. The last time I saw him was in Egypt. It is a bit warmer there than here. l am sorry to hear of your son Oliver being in hospital in England, and I hope will soon be ail right. I suppose father told you about the bullet going through my helmet. I had one through my puttee the same day. I was not even scratched, so you see I was not be hit that day. But there is only the one above all Who knows when our time has come and while we have Him watching us we need not fear, even if we were meeting the whole German army. It makes one think when he is in tight corner, and it is the one above you must ask to help you. And I don’t think we ever ask in vain. I have been in a few tight corners, and always come out unharmed. Can any one who thinks at all or knows doubt for a moment that he is very closely and without ceasing watching this terrible butchering and when His appointed time comes for it to stop it will cease, and not before. It is all for some good purpose, though we fail to see it. And may the Lord speed the end! We shall soon have Christmas here. It will make the third one I have had away from home. I expect it will be spent rather quietly, but must make the best of it. There is the silver lining somewhere had we but the power to see it. I shall tell the rest of the Bourne boys I have had a letter from you. We often get talking about our School days and our old Board School. We little thought then we should, ever be in such a great struggle as this. I am sorry to see that another of our Bourne boys has paid the full price of victory—William Bray. It will come very hard for his mother. Bourne must seem quiet now, not at all like the old Bourne we know so well. But it will make all the difference when the war is over and the boys come marching home. Your letters cheer us up. They remind us of the happy School days.”

•  Grantham Journal Saturday 27th July 1918
  BOURNE
  OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION was received on Thursday week that Pte. John Stevenson, Wood View, Bourne was presumed to have been killed. Pte. Stevenson has been missing since Sept 8th last. By a strange coincidence the official notification reached his parents on the anniversary of his 22nd birthday. Pte. Stevenson attached to the Lincoln Regiment.

Military Records

Medals

• The British Medal
  The Victory Medal
  The 15 Star

Memorials

• UK:
• Bourne, Roll of Honour in Bourne Abbey Church
• Bourne War Memorial in the Memorial Gardens

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
• In memory of Private John Richard Stevenson, 9541, 1st/5th Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 8 September 1917
• Son of Mrs Mary Ellen Stevenson, 67 Woodview, Bourne, Lincs
• Remembered with honour, Loos Memorial

© Picture taken by South Lincolnshire War Memorials

Military Service Timeline

• Enlisted in Bourne
• Missing since 8th September 1917

• This is ongoing research and will be posted when completed

Sources

• WW1 Soldier’s Records (www.ancestry.co.uk)
  Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• British Newspaper Archive.