PRIVATE 12764 JOHN HENRY POOL, 9th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY).

PRIVATE 12764 JOHN HENRY POOL, 9^th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY). KILLED IN ACTION 29^TH SEPTEMBER 1915.

At the turn of the 20th Century the Hunslet area of south Leeds was the industrial heart of the city. It was the home of numerous mills, steel works and heavy engineering factories. The workers were housed in thousands of 'two up two down' back to back houses which intermingled with the industrial sites. Often unsanitary and always overcrowded they comprised some of the worst slums in Leeds. In 1884 John Henry Pool was born in one such back to back at 6 Ross Place. He was one of 13 children born to John and Sarah Pool, of whom only 9 would would survive into adulthood. Events must have brought young John to Ilkley and in 1901 he was working as a farm labourer at Moor Houses Farm, Middleton. Clearly, he saw his future in the town, marrying local girl Emily Machin in 1912 at Ilkley Parish Church. By 1914 together they had two young children, John worked as a gardener for the Wharfedale Estate Company and with his family lived at 18 Leamington Terrace. In August 1914 he was one of the first to volunteer for the army and joined others from the town in the 'Ilkley Pals' company of the Duke of Wellingtons Regiment. In September 1915 Private John Pool was with his regiment near to Ypres. On the morning of the 29th just as breakfast was served a German shell landed in the trench, killing John and wounding several others including another Ilkley man Thomas Dudley Walker.

                                                     
                                                      Leeds Mercury 16th Oct 1915