Skelton W.H.
W.H. SKELTON
John William (Holmes?) Skelton (‘Willie’; obvious initials problem)
PW/6620 Private, Middlesex Regiment
Machine Gun Corps
Born 28th August 1895 at Messingham
Son of Holmes Shepherd (a farmer from Scotter) and Ada Leinton (nee Smith of Lincoln)
Other children Flora Ann (born 1893), William Holmes !! (born & died 1894), Frank Holmes (1898), Ada Muriel (1903) and George Sackwell (1908)
Family lived at North Field Grange, Ashby Road in Messingham
By the war years family had moved to Scotter
In 1917 the ‘Gainsborough News’ reported him:
'missing since March 28th … In a letter to his parents he speaks of a very slight wound in the hand’
On 24th August 1917 the paper stated:
‘Private Willie Skelton, Middlesex Regiment, elder son of Mr & Mrs Holmes Skelton, is now in the Middlesex Military Hospital suffering from gas received in the fighting in Flanders. He is progressing favourably and soon hopes to be on his legs again.’
Went back to the front, was captured and spent 8 months in France as a prisoner of war
Ba farmer
Married Evelyn Ada Wilkes Cartwright of Blyton in 1930
Lived at Poplar Grove Farm, Scotter
Son John Vincent born in 1935
Died in 1972 aged 76 in the North Kesteven registration district