Gunner 68729, 17th Bty. Royal Field Artillery
Died 29th Oct 1914, aged 23
Remembered Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial
& on both Blakeney War Memorials
John, always known as Jack, was registered at birth in the June Quarter, 1892 in the Walsingham District, although his Army Records state he was born, Holt. He was baptized three years later in Blakeney, 21st April 1895 with Mary Elizabeth Moore given as his mother. She married John Edward Sands of Sharrington (late 1892), and there were eight children born to the couple; Martha, George, Roland and Maud (all born in Sharrington), John (born Blakeney), Annie and Edna (born Morston) and William (born Binham).
Seemingly, however, Jack was brought up by his grandparents, George and Martha Moore nee Tomlin, at the Butts in Blakeney (1901), a farm cottage belonging to the Calthorpe family. The family subsequently moved to the High Street (1911) where Jack, aged 19, and his cousin James Lewis Moore were listed as farm labourers. Three Moores feature on the worker’s list for Manor Farm one being G, presumably for George, another being R, presumably for Jack’s uncle Robert then just one J Moore. Whether this was for Jack or his cousin James is impossible to determine. Both cousins were to lose their lives in the Great War.
There are no records for Jack’s service in the War, just the certificates produced by the CWGC and ancestry.co.uk. Additional information adds that he enlisted at Hempton and died on the fields of France and Flanders, during the Western European Theatre. Note; the Index No. M.R.29 for Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial PART XXVII (U.K.) gives October as the month of death, not 29th November as printed on the CWGC Certificate.
The Norfolk News, 28th November 1914 also supports the October date when it reported “The friends of Gunner J E Moore, 17th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, have received a brief notice that he has been killed. He makes the third man from here to yield up his life in the present war”. However, as it transpires, Jack was actually the fourth man from Blakeney to die in the Great War and one of the six that were to lose their lives before Xmas 1914.