People on board

Oakleigh, John Terence

The known personal details of John Terence Oakleigh are limited and mostly from transcribed sources. Soldiers who died in the Great War gives the information that he was born in London and his residence at enlistment was Shefford, Bedfordshire. In the 1911 census there is a John Oakleigh, born in 1898 in Bayswater, London and a resident in St Francis Home in Shefford. This was an Orphanage / Poor Law School / Industrial School. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission name his parents as John and Margaret Oakleigh of Ramsgate, Kent but a connection has not been established.

He enlisted in the Dorset Yeomanry, possibly having been previously in the Cheshire Regiment, Service Number 5696. In October 1918 he was with the 2/1st of the Dorset Yeomanry, a unit that had moved to Ireland in early 1918. He travelled on the 10th on RMS Leinster but did not survive the sinking. However his body was recovered and buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. His entry on the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects showed that he had back pay owing of £2 12 3 and a War Gratuity of £6. However this is annotated ‘Unissued’ which suggests that next-of-kin had not been identified.

His name is recorded on the Shefford War Memorial. According to the Bedfordshire Archives twenty-five of the former residents of St Francis Home died in the Great War