Lieutenant, 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment.
Killed in action 31st July 1917, age 25.
Remembered on the Menin Gate, Ypres , Belgium.
Student of theology.
John was the eldest son of farmers John and Margaret Bourn. He was born in 1892 at Bleasdale near Garstang, Lancashire. His father died in December 1895. Educated at the local school, St. Oswald’s College, Shropshire, and Keble College, Oxford where he gained a B.A. He entered Egerton Hall Theological College at Manchester University in 1914 to train to be a clergyman.
Immediately after starting his studies John joined the University Officer Training Corps, having previously being in the Oxford O.T.C., and remained a member until January 1915 when he was commissioned to the 8th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment. He was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1916 and proceeded to the Western Front in August that year. Having transferred to the 1st Battalion his unit was involved in the first day of the Battle of Passchendale during which he was shot through the chest by machine gun fire. He left effects worth £112 10s 6d to his mother.