58630: Photo of Jack Dyson Lancashire Fusiliers
Creators: name: Project Team, Great War Archive
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: Re: Private John (a.k.a.Jack) DYSON: 35892 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
Killed 7 September 1917, Bellewaarde Ridge “ name recorded on Tyne Cot Memorial
(born Rochdale, Lancashire, 29 July 1889)
My husband and I made a trip in September 07 to Belgium and northern France, during which we visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery with its new Visitor Centre, the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Zonnebeke and Ypres. It was all extremely impressive and deeply moving.
Our reason for going was to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele and the death of my maternal grandfather, John Dyson, there (Bellewaarde Ridge) and to see his name on the Memorial at Tyne Cot, as he was killed on 7 September 1917. This was something my grandma and mother had never been able to do. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had supplied us with relevant details and confirmed the date of his death; my grandma had always thought he was killed on 17th September. He was killed, we are informed, on Bellewaarde Ridge: we also visited this area, although we were not sure which part was the exact location where my grandfather was killed. We stopped at the end of Frezenbergstraat, 5 km from Zonnebeke and near the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Memorial and the park just down the road.
We picked up the leaflet ˜Did your granddad fight in Passchendaele 1917? Did he give his life?', and sent the information we are now sending to you in Oxford to the organisers of the Passchendaele archive. We have been unable to discover where exactly he was killed on Bellewaarde Ridge, what exactly ˜support duties' were, the date he enlisted and other matters of interest.
In one of the sources we tapped whilst in Belgium (the Memorial register in the Tyne Cot wall or the computer-accessed information in the Visitors Centre?), his entry gives his date of birth as ˜unknown': our family history research gives this as 29 July 1889, so this could be used in your records, if you wish.
The last photograph taken of John Dyson (in his army uniform), with his wife, Mary Alice (my grandma), and baby daughter, Rena (my mother), probably aged about 18 months. This may have been the sort of photo that was taken before men went off to war: it also happened in our family in the Second World War.
We are glad to be able to keep these original documents, as they are very precious, so we hope the scanned resolution is sufficiently high to be of use.
If there is anything further you think we might be able to help you with, please let us know. On a personal note, we are further pleased to help with you efforts, as my husband is an Oxford graduate.
With best wishes
Miriam Naylor (Mrs): grand-daughter
Kathryn Ion (Mrs): grand-daughter
Re: Private John (a.k.a.Jack) DYSON: 35892 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
Killed 7 September 1917, Bellewaarde Ridge “ name recorded on Tyne Cot Memorial
(born Rochdale, Lancashire, 29 July 1889)
My husband and I made a trip in September 07 to Belgium and northern France, during which we visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery with its new Visitor Centre, the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Zonnebeke and Ypres. It was all extremely impressive and deeply moving.
Our reason for going was to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele and the death of my maternal grandfather, John Dyson, there (Bellewaarde Ridge) and to see his name on the Memorial at Tyne Cot, as he was killed on 7 September 1917. This was something my grandma and mother had never been able to do. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had supplied us with relevant details and confirmed the date of his death; my grandma had always thought he was killed on 17th September. He was killed, we are informed, on Bellewaarde Ridge: we also visited this area, although we were not sure which part was the exact location where my grandfather was killed. We stopped at the end of Frezenbergstraat, 5 km from Zonnebeke and near the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Memorial and the park just down the road.
We picked up the leaflet ˜Did your granddad fight in Passchendaele 1917? Did he give his life?', and sent the information we are now sending to you in Oxford to the organisers of the Passchendaele archive. We have been unable to discover where exactly he was killed on Bellewaarde Ridge, what exactly ˜support duties' were, the date he enlisted and other matters of interest.
In one of the sources we tapped whilst in Belgium (the Memorial register in the Tyne Cot wall or the computer-accessed information in the Visitors Centre?), his entry gives his date of birth as ˜unknown': our family history research gives this as 29 July 1889, so this could be used in your records, if you wish.
A photograph of several men, with John Dyson second left on the front row, and dated ˜July 24.16' i.e. 1916. Could this perhaps be a wedding group, as the man in the centre has a flower on his jacket? John may well have been the ˜best man', as he is looking very smart and is next to the groom but we do not know. This could have been about the time the photo no.1 was taken, as my mother was born on 24 December 1914 and would have been 19 months old at the time. It would be interesting to know whether he had already enlisted at this time and returned home on leave or whether he had yet to go to the War. It could be, too, that Jack and Mary's second daughter, Mary, was conceived about this time, as she was born on 7 April 1917 but died in March 1919 of influenza, probably without either her or her father having seen each other.
We are glad to be able to keep these original documents, as they are very precious, so we hope the scanned resolution is sufficiently high to be of use.
If there is anything further you think we might be able to help you with, please let us know. On a personal note, we are further pleased to help with you efforts, as my husband is an Oxford graduate.
With best wishes
Miriam Naylor (Mrs): grand-daughter
Kathryn Ion (Mrs): grand-daughter