3/8th Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
John William O’nion was born in Cheltenham in the fourth quarter of 1872. His father must have died prior to the 1881 Census, as this shows him living with his mother, Mary Ann Onion at 7 Brighton Road, Cheltenham.
In 1895 he married Clara Cooper at Cheltenham and the couple had two children.
He had been employed by the General Post Office in the town as a postman but by the time of the 1911 Census the family had moved to Sidmouth, Devon, living at 7 Hill View Terrace, Pensland Road, Sidmouth.
He enlisted in the 28th London Regiment (Artist’s Rifles) in 1915 but was over the age for overseas service and transferred to the 3/8th Battalion, who spent much of the war in the Devon area.
He died of illness (stomach cancer) at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, south London on 21 March 1919, aged 46. He was survived by his widow and two children, who, when Probate was issued were living at 9 Jubilee Terrace, Sidmouth.
He left an estate of £160 16s 9d. At the time of compiling the CWGC Register the family had moved to west London, living at 38 King Edward’s Gardens, Acton Hill.
John O’nion returned to his birth town to be buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is remembered on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 4 February 2013 (revised 5 August 2021) with an aknowledgement to ‘Leaving All that was Dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)