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John J Healey
28679, Private, 22nd Welsh Regiment
Died of drowning, 23 November 1915, aged 25
Buried at the Great Orme Cemetery
CWGC registered (Son of Edward and Margaret Jane Healey, of 3, Robinson St, Stalybridge, Cheshire)
John Healey is not commemorated on any local war memorials. However, he was interred in the Great Orme Cemetery in 1915. This would appear to be John Healey’s only connection with Llandudno and this page is included for interest only.
John Healey was born on 22 September 1890 at Dukinfield, Cheshire. He was the son of a cotton spinner, Edward Healy, and his wife Margaret Jane (née Morris). The family lived in various addresses in Dukinfield and Stalybridge, John attending both St. John’s Church of England Primary School, Dukinfield and St. Peter’s School in Stalybridge. In 1911, the family was resident at 3 Robinson Street, Stalybridge; John was recorded as being employed as a cotton piecer, a precarious occupation under spinning mules often carried out by children which suggests that John Healey was of slight stature.
John Healey’s service record no longer exists but it is recorded that he enlisted into the Welsh Regiment at Stalybridge with a regimental number of 28679. Judging from the record of a soldier with a consecutive service number, it is likely that John Healey joined up in May 1915 into the 18th (Service) Battalion of the Welsh Regiment. The 18th WR was a Bantam Battalion that had formed at Cardiff in January 1915 before moving to Prees Heath in Shropshire. At the end of August 1915, both the 17th and 18th WR left Prees Heath for Aldershot but without their respective depot companies (including John Healey). These two depot companies were amalgamated to form the 22nd (Reserve) Battalion which moved to the Morpha Camp at Conwy in October 1915.
On 23 November 1915, John Healey and a companion, John Holding, were on guard duty near the Deganwy Ferry. Both were cut off on a sandbank by the incoming tide and were drowned. The body of John Healey was found on the West Shore on 2 January 1916. John Holding was found two days later at Blackpool. Verdicts of accidental death were recorded.
Known memorials:
- Stalybridge War Memorial
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