GUNNER 781351 JOHN WILFRED TRAVIS, 'C' BATTERY, 174th BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. KILLED IN ACTION 12th JANUARY 1918.

GUNNER 781351 JOHN WILFRED TRAVIS, 'C' BATTERY, 174th BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. KILLED IN ACTION 12th JANUARY 1918.


Even during quiet times on The Western Front when there was no ongoing offensive the risk of sudden and violent death was always present for troops in the front line. It was on just such a day that the 174th brigade of the Royal Field Artillery were in position to the west of Ypres when they were subject to an enemy barrage. Four members of the brigade were killed including Gunner John Travis a 21 year old lad from Ilkley who died instantly.

John had lived in Ilkley for most of his life, although, he was born in the Holbeck district of Leeds. He was the youngest of 4 children born to John Travis, a cashier and his wife Margaret. who had moved to Ilkley just after his birth. In 1898 John's mother died at the age of just 35 and his father brought up his children in a terraced house at 18 Middleton Road.

Upon leaving school John obtained a position with Ilkley Urban District Council, working as an office boy and clerk at the gas works which were located on Lower Wellington Road (today the site of Booth's supermarket). Records about his war service are sparse but we know that in 1915 John went to nearby Otley to enlist into the 4th Brigade of the Territorial West Riding Royal Field Artillery. Before the war this had been made up of part-time soldiers from Ilkley and Otley but in 1914 it had been mobilised and had been sent to France. In the meantime John was sent to the Territorial Army Training School at Ripon to learn how to become a gunner. It was in early 1916 that he was posted overseas to what became the 246th Brigade Royal Field Artillery which was made up of men from this part of the old West Riding. At some stage he was transferred to the 174th Brigade, although, the reasons for this are unknown. It is possible that he was wounded and evacuated to Britain and upon his return to the front was not sent back to his old unit.

Today John Travis lies in the British Military Cemetery at Tyne Cot and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley

(Photo taken from the Ilkley Free Press and is courtesy of James Cooper) thanks also to David Potter of Great War Forum for information about John's war service.

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