b. 26/03/1883 Hawick, Scotland. d. 24/01/1933 Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Brunton Daykins (1883-1933) was born on 26th March 1883 at Ormiston Farm, Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland. His father, also John, was from Hawick and worked as a farm steward. He married Betsy “Bessie” Brunton, a spinner, on 17th November 1882 at 1 Bridge Street, Hawick. John senior and his brother-in-law, Samuel Brunton, took over the tenancy of Howden Farm in Hawick in 1885. John junior had three siblings – Samuel, James and Elizabeth, known as Lizzie.
John was educated at Jedburgh Grammar School from 1889-1896 and also at Kelso School. He worked on his father’s tenant farm at Howden. He enlisted in A Squadron, 1st Lothian & Border Horse Yeomanry on 7th September 1914. He reduced his age to 27 and six months. John had enormous feet and the army struggled to find boots to fit him. He joined at Haddington, East Lothian on the same day that he enlisted and after eight months transferred to Sutton Veny, Salisbury Plain. He went to France on 20th September 1915, arriving at Le Havre the next day, when the Squadron became 26th Division’s Cavalry Squadron. In December 1915 he joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Salonika, arriving on the 17th. He contracted malaria in September 1916, before his Squadron transferred to 8th Mounted Brigade in November 1916.
After a period of home leave until January 1917, and a short period of time serving in Britain, he returned to the Western Front on 14th March. He joined the 2nd Advanced Remount Squadron at Abbeville. On 20th August 1917 he transferred to the Tank Corps Recruit Depot, but six days later moved to 3rd York & Lancaster Regiment.
He was promoted to corporal on 29th December, before a period away from the frontline with pyrexia in March 1918. He was evacuated to the UK for treatment, and would not return to France until 24th July and would join the 7th Battalion (Pioneers) on 5th September. John returned to the 2/4th Battalion on 8th September and was appointed paid acting sergeant on 3rd October.
John B Daykins VC MM
On 20th October 1918 at Solesmes, France, Sergeant Daykins, with 12 remaining men of his platoon, rushed a machine-gun and during subsequent severe hand-to-hand fighting he himself disposed of many of the enemy and secured his objective. He then located another machine-gun which was holding up an operation of his company. Under heavy fire he worked his way alone to the post and shortly afterwards returned with 25 prisoners and an enemy machine-gun, which he mounted at his post. His magnificent fighting spirit and example inspired his men, saved many casualties and contributed largely to the success of the attack.
He was also awarded the Military Medal for his actions with B Company in the attack on Fresnoy on 4th November 1918. He opted to have the Milirary Medal delivered by post and not to have a formal presentation. He continued to serve with the Army of Occupation at Cologne until returning to Britain on 7th April 1919. He was demobbed on 7th May 1919. He received his VC from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8th May 1919.
When John Daykins and his family came from Howden in a carriage he was met at the town boundary (of Jedburgh) by the Provost and Town Council, the horse was taken from its shafts and he was pulled in a procession by soldiers to the Town Hall. He received his Burgess Ticket in a silver mounted casket made from the wood of the Capon Tree. He was also presented with a silver tea set and canteen of cutlery from the people of Jedburgh.
The machine-guns that John captured at Solosmes were presented to the town of Jedburgh and mounted at the Castle Jail. There they stayed until they were removed in 1940 to be melted down for scrap metal during the Second World War.
John returned to farming at Howden and took over the tenancy of the farm on the death of his father in 1924. He would live there with his mother and sister. He never married. He attended two VC reunions – the VC Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in 1920 and the VC Dinner at the House of Lords in 1929.
On 24th January, 1933, he was fatally wounded by his own gun as he searched the farm for a troublesome cat. In the dark he had tripped, and the gun had went off accidentally. He had recently been suffering from influenza and may still have been weakened by the illness. John died in an ambulance on the way to an Edinburgh hospital, having been found by his sister.
At a well attended funeral, John Brunton Daykins V.C., M.M., was laid to rest in Castlewood Cemetery, Jedburgh in the family grave. He is commemorated with Daykins Drive in Hawick, a plaque outside the British Legion in Jedburgh, and with a VC commemorative stone placed at Jedburgh War Memorial on 20th October 2018.
In addition to his VC and MM, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20 and Victory Medal 1914-19. The VC was given on a long loan by his sister, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Swanston to the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment in May 1957. The medals are still held by the Regiment at their Regimental Museum in Clifton Park, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: YORK AND LANCASTER REGIMENT MUSEUM, ROTHERHAM.
BURIAL PLACE: CASTLEWOOD CEMETERY, JEDBURGH, SCOTLAND. GRAVE 1431
