John Anderson

Born in Heselden, he was working as a miner at Wingate when he enlisted at West Hartlepool in the 13th (Service) Battalion DLI in September 1914 aged 22. During the 3rd Battle of Ypres in October 1917, he used his Lewis gun to drive back over 20 attacking Germans and was awarded the Military Medal. In June 1918 during an attack on 13 DLI's trenches at Asiago in northern Italy, his machine gun halted the Austrian attack. Later he went into No Man's Land and took prisoners. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Sergeant Anderson was killed in action at Beaurevoir on 5 October 1918. His brother, William - also a Sergeant with the 13th Battalion DLI - was killed in action in 1917.