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A/201726 18th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
John Raymond (registered as Joseph John) was born in Bulmer, Essex in 1894, one of ten children of James and Alice Raymond. His father was a farm labourer on Kitchen Farm, Bulmer and the family later moved to Prospect Place, Bulmer Road in Sudbury. At the age of 17 John was employed as a hairdresser’s assistant working for his older brother Robert William (Bill) who had a business at 5 Friar Street and John lodged there with Robert and his wife Nellie.
John enlisted in Stratford, Essex and served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps which formed part of 122nd Brigade, 41st Division. In the summer of 1917 the battalion saw action at the Battle of Messines (7 – 14 June) when the Allies detonated 19 enormous mines buried deep below German positions along a ridge outside Messines. The mines, made up of almost one million pounds of explosives, created one of the largest explosions before nuclear weapons.
In July the battalion saw action in the opening phase of the Third Battle of Ypres (31July – 10 November) at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July – 2 August). On the first day the Allies gained 2,000 yards but at a cost of 3,000 casualties.
John died of wounds aged 22 on 31 July 1917 and lies buried in Voormezeele Enclosure No.3, Ypres, Belgium. He was awarded the British War medal and Victory Medal.
The following In Memoriam was placed in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 27 July 1921:
He is gone from our eyes but not from our hearts,
And his loving Remembrance will never depart;
There is no death in heaven,
For they who gain that shore,
Are free from trouble, toil and pain,
And they can die no more.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in October 2014.
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