This man is a candidate for addition to Keighley's Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
Click here to go to the Main page
Supported by the National Lottery's Heritage Fund, our project intends to submit about 120 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it's new names is planned for November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.

Private. 2nd Bn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Service Number: 31064.

Early life:

John Willie was born in Bingley in 1892 possibly at 15, Prospect Street, where the family were living in the 1891 census. His birth was registered in Keighley in the second quarter of the year. There is no mention of who his parents might have been.

His grandfather James was head of the household and died aged 57 in 1898, his death was registered in Keighley in the first quarter of the year.

In the 1901 census John Willie was aged eight and living at 7, Belvoir Street in Keighley with his grandmother Elizabeth Hopkins, now a widow aged 59.
Also living here were his grandmother Elizabeth's children, namely William aged 19, John aged 17, Lilly aged 13, Emily aged 11 plus Thomas Bentham (son in law) and Elizabeth's daughter Carmella Bentham, both aged 23.

By the time of the 1911 census John Willie was aged 18 and living with his uncle and aunt John and Mary Ellen Hopkins and their three children James aged six, Robert aged 5 and John aged 2. Uncle John was working as a moulder making loom machinery at an iron foundry and John Willie was employed as a labourer in a foundry making textile machinery. They were all living at number 9, Wellington Street in Keighley.

In 1913, John married Harriet Burton at Pontefract in the third quarter of the year. He would have been 21 at the time. Harriet was also 21, being born in 1892 and registered at Keighley. She was living at Fell Lane in Keighley in the 1911 census, so the reason for them marrying at Pontefract isn't clear, unless one or both were there for work.

War service:

John Willie appears to have enlisted at Pontefract indicating he was probably working there, although it seems Harriet was living in Keighley at that time and certainly when he died in 1916. He did not go out to France until after January 1916.
He took part in the Battle of the Ancre, when Beaumont-Hamel was captured in November 1916. The area they were fighting in was just to the North of Beaumont-Hamel which is just showing on the bottom left corner of this trench map, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland:

A trench map showing Munich and Frankfurt Trenches. Beaumont-Hamel is at bottom left.

WO-95/2402/1 War diary for 2nd Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry November 1916:

ENGLEBELMER 16/11/16:
Battalion Commanders met the staff at MOULIN MAILLY-MAILLET and went round the sector.
After a conference at Brigade HQ the battalion moved up into the front line at 10 pm, taking over from the 11th Berkshire Regiment and the 10th Bedfordshire Regiment, with the 11th Borders in support and the 16th and 17th Highland Light Infantry in reserve at ENGLEBELMER. Only one guide was provided for the battalion.
17/11/16:
The final orders for the attack were issued. The first objective was MUNICH TRENCH. and the FRANKFURT TRENCH which would be the final objective. The order of battle was from right to left.17th and 16th Highland Light Infantry 11th Borders and the 2nd KOYLI would carry out a defensive flank on the left, while the 37th Division would attack on the right of the 19th Brigade. The 96th Brigade would be in support to the 14th and 97th Brigades at MAILLY-MAILLET. During the night of the 17th/18th the Brigade moved into the battle position, which was a line marked out in front of the original trench. The relief was difficult to carry out owing to the troops not having previous knowledge of the trenches.
BEAUMONT-HAMEL. 18/11/16:
At 5.15 am on the 18th inst. the battalion was drawn up on an advanced line which had been marked out by the R.E. running due North and South and we dug in.
The order was A.B.C.D. from right to left, our right was in touch with the 11th Borders and our left ran towards LARGER TRENCH occupied by the Manchester Regiment.
The companies were drawn up in company column. All four battalions of the Brigade were in the line, our front originally allotted was 300 yards but it was afterwards reduced to 225 yards. The conditions were bad, it started snowing just before the attack and therefore observation was very difficult, but at zero which was at 6.10 am our barrage was intense and apparently very effective, consequently the enemy sent up numbers of very lights, this with the very white ground lit up all the surroundings. The line advanced with MUNICH TRENCH as their first objective, the left half of the battalion was able to push forward and reach their first objective, but the right half was held up by intense machine gun and rifle fire so they took up a position in a line of shell holes in front of the German wire. Meanwhile our left went on and gained their final objective after heavy fighting, and mopping up as they advanced. At this period Captain H. Whitworth OC of the left company who was wounded and forced to retire confirmed the report that his company had gained their first objective and were about to advance on to their second. After this we got no definite news of the two left companies, but believing that they must have advanced with their right flank unprotected, all reinforcements that could be found, including a platoon which was extricated after being involved with the 11th Border Regiment., were sent to support them and to take up bombs. At about 5.30 pm 2nd Lieutenant H. R. Forde who was O C the right company came back to report the situation. Still there was no news of the two left companies to with no line to hold and with their left flank unprotected, and on the right the 11th Borderers had retired, the Commanding Officer decided to withdraw to the original line. At about 6.30 pm the battalion took up the old line; at that time it consisted of the Colonel, Adjutant, Intelligence Officer, 2 Lieutenant H. R. Forde and about 170 other ranks.
19/11/16:
In the evening at about 10 pm the 16th Lancashire Fusiliers relieved the battalion in the line, when it retired to billets in MAILLY-MAILLET.

A some point during this attack on the 18th November, John Willie was killed in action.
He was posted missing at the time and this was reported in the casualty lists for the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, which were printed in the Leeds Mercury and the Sheffield Independent issue of January 5th, 1917. Eventually he was posted 'previously reported missing, now reported killed,' which was printed in the War Office Weekly dated 21st August 1917.

It's possible that he was still lying on the battlefield until the Germans evacuated the area in the spring of 1917, when they withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. Burials were carried out by V Corps at that time, creating the Munich Trench British Cemetery.
He appears to have been one of a large number which must have been found and identified at that time and they were also verified in the enormous process of identification after the war. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a 'Grave Registration Report Form' dated 30th July 1920 which confirms the graves of a large number of men in at least three rows, at Map reference 57d.K.35.d.8.5. this was described as Munich Trench Cemetery.
John Willie's grave is number 13 in row A of that cemetery which is near Beaumont-Hamel in the Somme Region of France.

Post war:

John Willie Hopkins' name does not appear on any war memorial in the Keighley and Worth Valley area despite him living here since at least 1901 and his widow Harriet residing here for at least fifty years after the war ended.

Harriet was his next of kin. She would have received any of his personal effects plus his medals which were the British War Medal and Victory Medal. She would also have received a bronze memorial plaque and a King's certificate inscribed with his name.
The soldiers effects record shows she was sent a payment of his remaining Army pay amounting to £2 6s 8d on 14th January 1918 and a war gratuity payment of £3 on 19th November 1919. This amount suggests he enlisted less than 12 months before his death in November 1916.
Harriet received a widow's pension of 13 shillings and 9 pence per week beginning on 16th July 1917 which would likely have ended when she remarried in 1919, to John Gawkins of 57 Wellington Street, Keighley. A Winifred Gawkins was also registered at this address.
John Gawkin(s) was 'NM' as an absent voter in the 1919 electoral roll so he had been, or still was serving in the Armed forces at the time and from records, we know he was born in 1895 and during the war he served with the Machine Gun Corps.

In 1921, they travelled to Halifax, Novia Scotia in Canada on the SS Saxonia, in 1930 Harriet is on the electoral roll in Keighley living at 39, Coney Lane and three years later at 20, Royal Arcade, but John could not be found in local records.
We think John had died or they were divorced because Harriet became married for the third time, to Herbert Bottomley with their marriage registered in Keighley in the third quarter of 1935.
Herbert and Harriet were living at Parkwood Top Bungalow in Keighley in the 1939 register. Herbert was aged 37 and a timber yard labourer and Harriet was 47 and on 'unpaid domestic duties' - looking after their home.
Harriet died at the age of 80 in 1972, her death was registered in The Worth Valley in the last quarter of the year.
Herbert died aged 81 in 1983, with his death being registered at Keighley in the first quarter of the year.

Information sources:

England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Headstone Placeholder
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
National Archives - WO-95/2402/1
2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment war diary
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960
1939 England and Wales Register
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
The National Library of Scotland