b. 28/10/1887 Walton, Lancashire. d. 16/10/1918 Solesmes, France.
John McNamara (1887-1918) was born on 28th October 1887 at 11 Mill Street, Bamber Bridge, Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, Lancashire. His father, John Thomas McNamara, was from Bamber Bridge, and was an apprentice blacksmith living with his parents in 1881. He became a blacksmith before enlisting in the 4th Battalion, North Lancashire Regiment (Militia) at Preston on 21st April 1884. John senior married Margaret Kelly, a cotton rover, in 1885 at Preston, where she was born. They later moved to Blackburn. Margaret died there when John was just three, following complications after the birth of his sister, Mary, who also died. John junior had two siblings.
John and his surviving brother, Francis, were raised by their paternal grandparents following the death of their mother. He was educated at St Mary’s Roman Catholic School, Bamber Bridge and worked in School Lane at Messrs J & A Orr’s mill as a ring jobber. He played football for the School Lane Athletic Club. John married Mary Ann Atkinson on 27th April 1912 and they lived at 82 Stone Row, School Lane. She was a ring spinner in a cotton mill. John and Mary had three children – Elizabeth, Isabella and Alice.
John McNamara VC
John enlisted in December 1915 in 3rd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and trained at Felixstowe, Suffolk. He qualified as a signaller and transferred to 10th Battalion in France. He transferred to the East Surrey on 21st February 1918 following the disbandment of 10th Loyals on 4th February.
On 3rd September 1918 north west of Lens, France, when operating a telephone in evacuated enemy trenches occupied by his battalion, Corporal McNamara realised that a determined enemy counter-attack was gaining ground. Rushing to the nearest post, he made very good use of a revolver taken from a wounded officer and then, seizing a Lewis gun, he fired it until it jammed. By this time, he was alone in the post and, having destroyed the telephone, he joined the nearest post and maintained a Lewis gun until reinforcements arrived.
The award was made posthumously. John was killed in action on 16th October 1918 in fighting in and around the town of Haussy, where the East Surreys were pushing the Germans back in what was increasingly becoming a mobile war as the German army began to crack. He is buried at the Romeries Communal Cemetery near the town of Solesmes. He is remembered by a plaque on an earth bank where his house used to stand in School Lane, Bamber Bridge, and his is one of the names on the Brownedge St. Mary R.C. Memorial at Brownedge Green, Bamber Bridge.
On 22nd November 1918, John’s C.O., Lieutenant Colonel Ewan A. Cameron wrote to his widow. He wrote “he was one of the most gallant fellows I have ever seen and he richly deserved the V.C. which has just been awarded him. It is particularly sad that he did not live long enough to hear of it, the highest and most coveted award any soldier can get…. I will esteem it an honour, if when the time comes, and if it can be arranged, you allow me to take you personally to His Majesty the King to receive the V.C.”
His posthumous VC was presented to his widow by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 27th February 1920. John is commemorated also with John McNamara’s Gardens in Withy Grove Road, on the East Surrey Regiment Memorial in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, and with a VC commemorative stone dedicated in the John McNamara Gardens on 2nd September 2018.
In addition to his VC he was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20 and Victory Medal 1914-19. His medals and death plaque were presented to the Regiment by the family in 1968. The VC is held by the Surrey Infantry Museum at the Surrey History Centre, Woking. The regimental collection is held there currently due to the fire at Clandon Park, Guildford, Surrey in 2015 which destroyed the site of the previous Regimental Museum.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: SURREY INFANTRY MUSEUM, SURREY HISTORY CENTRE, WOKING, SURREY.
BURIAL PLACE: ROMERIES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE.
PLOT IV, ROW D, GRAVE 17.
Acknowledgements:
Kevin Brazier – Cemetery Map and Grave Image.
Ian Robinson – Image of McNamara VC Stone in McNamara Gardens, Bamber Bridge.