John William Spurr was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire on Thursday, 19th January 1893 and baptised a month later on Friday, 17th February at St. Mary’s Church in the town. He was sixth child born to William Spurr and Mercy Bailey who had eleven children together. John’s siblings were: Louisa Ethel, Helen Kate, Phyllis (Philadelphia), Solomon Bailey and Thomas George, all older. His younger siblings were: Eliza, Jim (James), Arthur Victor and Winnie (Winifred). Louisa died in 1882 aged one, Helen in 1883 at birth and Eliza in 1892 also just one-year-old. A fourth unknown child also died in infancy. Thomas died in 1910 aged twenty-one and John’s father William died in 1913 aged sixty. John grew up at 63 Queen Street and his father was a ‘Porter’ for Hemel Hempstead Corporation. By 1911 when he was seventeen, his father was working as a farm labourer and the family had moved to 25 Cherry Bounce, just off the High Street in Hemel Hempstead. John was employed as a ‘Groom’ in the stables of a local Coach company.

On the outbreak of war, he volunteered immediately. He was living in Bury, Lancashire at the time, having gone to work there and he attested in August and enlisted with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was sent to Hull, South Yorkshire to train with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion and in March of 1915 he was posted to the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers and sent overseas. He left England with his Battalion on the 16th March 1915 and sailed via Egypt, landing in Gallipoli on the 25th April. He then took part in the legendary landing at Cape Helles on the same day, when the Regiment won the distinction of awards of the Victoria Cross to two Officers and four Other Ranks. This is popularly referred to as the ‘Six VC’s before breakfast’. The landing beach was thereafter named ‘Lancashire Landing’.

John first experience of battle came at ‘W’ Beach, Cape Helles, when the 1st Lancashires had to row fifty yards from their transport to the beach and immediately came under Ottoman small arms fire. Many men perished when they jumped from the landing craft and sank under the weight of their equipment. The surviving Fusiliers were fired on from three sides as they tried to cut the defensive barbed wire or crawl underneath. A witness later wrote: “It appeared as if the whole battalion must be wiped out. The wire on the beach was intact and to those watching anxiously from the ‘Euryalus’ the situation appeared hopeless. It looked as each man was shot down as he left his boat.” However, the Fusiliers managed to break through and capture the Ottoman trenches, one of the few successes on the first day of the Gallipoli landings. John then fought through the campaign in the Dardanelles until the Lancashire Fusiliers were evacuated to Egypt in January 1916. Two months later he landed in Marseille in France and began the long march north to the Western Front.

John then fought in the Somme Offensive at the Battle of Albert and the Battle of the Transloy Ridges. In 1917 the Lancashire Fusiliers fought at all three Battles of the Scarpe, phases of the Arras Offensive, before moving to Belgium in July. Next came the Battle of Langemarck and finally, Poelcapelle where John was one of many casualties during the attack. The Battalion War Diaries recorded the following: “Other Ranks Killed 26 Wounded 138   Missing 13”. He was seriously wounded in the neck and evacuated to No.3 General Hospital at Le Treport in France. He hung on to life for nineteen days before finally succumbing to his wounds.

John died in the evening of Sunday, 28th October 1917.

The Hemel Gazette published a letter received by his mother after his death.

John is Remembered with Honour in Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, Seine-Maritime, France, where he is interred in Grave VI. B. 13A.

He was 24 years old when he died.

John was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.