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32161 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment
John Spreckley was born 12 April 1895 in Islington, London, the only child of John and Caroline Spreckley. His father was an accountant and the family later moved to Bedford. John attended Sudbury Grammar School; by the age of 15 he had left to attend the School of Engineering in London.
John enlisted in Bedford to serve with the Bedfordshire Regiment (formerly 3828). He first served in ‘a theatre of war in 1915’. The battalion formed part of 112th Brigade, 37th Division and in the spring of 1917 the battalion saw action during the Battle of Arras at the First (9-14 April) and Second (23-24 April) Battle of the Scarpe and the Battle of Arleux (28-29 April). The battalion war diary records that they had a hard time during the month of April with much marching and sharp fighting on 10th. On the 28 April the battalion was close to Roeux and the diary for that date describes an attack at dawn on Greenland Hill, they gained their objective but suffered from ‘enfilade fire from the chemical works’, ‘only 58 men came out of the attack unwounded’.
John died aged 22 on 28 April 1917. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Arras Memorial in March 2007 and October 2011.
John is also remembered on the Memorial at St. Mary’s Church in Bedford.
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