John Robert Bannister died of wounds on this day in 1915

John Robert Bannister was born in Burnley in 1880, the son of John Bannister, a nut and bolt maker, and his wife Mary Ellen, a cotton weaver.

At the 1891 Census, they were a family of six, parents and four children plus four lodgers (a mother and her three children) in the same dwelling (11 Gresham Place, Burnley).

John had one older brother, Joseph, plus three younger brothers James, Harry and Gilbert. He also had two younger sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before the war, John had been in the 1st Bn Cameronians, serving in Mauritius and South Africa.

At the 1911 Census, John, a Lance Sergeant, was in army barracks in England.

In 1913, John married Jenny Mochrie and the couple lived at 26 Lutner Street, Burnely, Lancashire. We learn from his Pension Card that they had a son, Robert, born on 2 February 1915.

Sergeant Bannister was wounded whilst on ‘trench holding' duties near Bac St.Maur between 23-25 March 1915. He died, in hospital in Rouen, of these injuries on 27 March.

John was buried in St.Sever Cemetery, Rouen. He was 35 years old. The inscription on his headstone reads.....

6790 Sgt John Robert Bannister, 2nd Bn Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)