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John Horan (1889-)


Miner from Thornley Colliery served with 9th DLI won the DCM during the '100 Days Offensive'


John Horan, son of James and Mary Horan, was born in Trimdon early in 1889. He had two brothers and four sisters and on 14 November 1911 he married Louisa Kyle in Thornley and they had two children. He was a miner when he enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment at Richmond on 3 September 1914 but was discharged six weeks later as ‘not being likely to become an efficient soldier’. He later joined the 1st/8th Battalion Durham Light infantry (DLI) and went from there to the 1st/9th, back to the 1st/8th and finished up in he 1st/9th. He landed in France on 19 April 1915 and on 2 September 1918 won the DCM during the ‘100 Days Offensive’.

His award of the DCM was gazetted on 16 January 1919 and the citation reads:
“At Vaulx Wood, on 2nd September, 1918, he was acting as a stretcher-bearer, and attended to the wounded under heavy fire with fine disregard of his own safety. On reaching the objective, finding the flank of the platoon exposed, he took a rifle and, single-handed, attacked a machine-gun, dispersing the team and capturing the gun, which he brought into our lines. He then went and brought in an injured man whom he had observed lying out in the open. His conspicuous gallantry and self-sacrificing devotion to duty were a splendid example to all”.

International Encyclopedia of the First World War, Hundred Days Offensive:
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/hundred_days_offensive

Civil Parish: Thornley

Birth date: 1889

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Dyke Row, Trimdon(1891 census)
55 Rodridge street, Hutton Henry (1901 census)
Wood Street, Thornley (1911 census)
Back Hartlepool Street, Thornley (British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920)

Employment: Coal Miner (1911 census)
Miner (British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920)

Family: Father: James Horan
Mother: Mary Horan (nee Shannon)
Siblings: James, Mary, Sarah, Thomas, Annie & Catherine (Katie) Horan

Military service:

Yorkshire Regiment
Regimental number: 14141
8th & 9th Durham Light Infantry
Regimental numbers: 3165, 9/7523 & 325874
Private

Medal(s): Distinguished Conduct Medal
1914-1915 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by John Edwards

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