3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
John Guest was born in 1873, one of a number of children born to Joseph and Ellen Guest. His mother appears to have died sometime between 1881 and 1891. He was born at Christelton, near Chester.
John appears to have undertaken a number of manual jobs, such as coal mining and labouring and during the early 1900s he was a member of the Army Reserve: in September 1912 he re- engaged into the Special Reserve for a term of four years. Interestingly, when signing up for this reserve service he appears to he lied about his age — in June 1908 he stated it to be 27 years, six months, when in fact he was about 39.
Being a reservist he was immediately called up at the start of the war and was sent to France to join the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment on 7 October 1914. His stay in France was short-lived. On 25 November 1914 he was admitted into the Duchess of Sutherland’s Hospital at Dunkirk and was returned to the UK on 29 November, ending up at the Red Cross Hospital at Gloucester, along with 24 wounded soldiers.
According to the Gloucester Journal of 12 December 1914 John died there on 8 December 1914, from diabetes. Assuming his birth year was 1873, he would have been 41 years of age.
The newspaper described his funeral, held on 11 December, as ‘semi-military’, with a detachment 110 strong, from ‘A’ Company, 5th Gloucestershire Regiment and 30 recruits being present, plus a firing party, nine buglers and Red Cross nurses. The funeral cortege went from the hospital to St Catherine’s Church and thereafter to Gloucester Old Cemetery, where the ‘Last Post’ was sounded. A ‘large concourse of people’ witnessed proceedings, despite ‘inclement weather’. His grave is now marked with a standard CWGC headstone.
John Guest’s Service Record has survived in damaged form at the National Archives and from this it is possible to glean that his medal entitlement was taken up by his sister, Mrs Harriett Stanworth, who commented that she was not in contact with any of her siblings.
Researched by Graham Adams 20 December 2013