John Edward Hawdon

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1868, the son of William - an engineering draughtsman - and Jane Hawdon, he was working for Rogerson's steel works at Wolsingham, when he was commissioned in 1893 in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion DLI as a Second Lieutenant. In 1908, he joined the 6th Battalion DLI when the Volunteers became Territorials. Major Hawdon went with 6 DLI to Belgium, as Second in Command, in April 1915 and fought in the 2nd Battle of Ypres before being invalided home with rheumatism in December 1915. He served for the rest of war in Bishop Auckland at the Battalion's Administrative HQ.