Dyche, John

Lieutenant John Dyche

Regiment: Royal Welsh (Welch) Fusiliers
Regimental Number: 2768
Date of Death: 28th January, 1917 (Died of Wounds)
Location: Mesopotamia
Burial Location: Amara Cemetery (Iraq?)
Age at death: 19/20.

Additional Notes

• John Dyche’s name appears on the War Memorial in the Methodist Church as “J. Dyche” but it does not appear on the Victoria Avenue or Primitive Methodist War Memorials.
• John’s Medal Index Card indicates that he was entitled to the 1914 Star which means that he served in France or Belgium between 5th August and 22nd November, 1914. He would have been 17 years old.
• John Dyche was born in Halifax, Yorkshire in 1897.
• His connection with Ockbrook & Borrowash is that his father, William Dyche, was born in Borrowash in 1863 and had relatives living in Borrowash at the time of John’s death. There is no evidence that John himself lived in Borrowash.
• William Dyche was a schoolmaster who was teaching in Halifax when John was born. At the time of the 1901 Census the family lived at 18 Manor Drive in the parish of Salterhebble St. Jude in Halifax. John’s mother was Annie Mary Dyche (nee Sirett) who was from Sowerby(?) Bridge, Yorkshire. John had two older sisters: Amy (b. 1891) and Jane (b. 1894).
• By the time of the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 36/86 Kimberley Road, Cardiff. Amy was no longer living with the family but Jane was still at home, aged 17. Unusually she was still a scholar at a period when most child left school in their early teens. John was 14 years old in 1911 and a scholar.
• William Dyche’s teaching career was clearly an eminent one. Although the 1901 Census lists him as “schoolmaster”, he was, in fact Headmaster of Halifax Higher Grade School and President of the Association of Heads of Higher Grade Schools and Schools of Science and was an active proponent of the Higher Grade School system.
• William had, from 1903(?) been the highly respected headmaster of Howard Gardens High School in Cardiff. Glamorgan Records Office has many letters written to him from students in the forces during World War One.
• William’s father was Jabez Dyche who, until the early 1870s had been a farmer in Borrowash. However, the family lost the tenancy at that time and Jabez went on to become a prison warder at Derby Prison – a job he hated, according to William’s memoirs.