Corporal John Boal M.M.

Corporal John Edgar Boal, M.M., 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, att. 149th Trench Mortar Battery. He died of wounds in France on 8th December 1916, aged 20. He had been born in Berwick and was the son of Thomas and Lily Boal of 12 West Street, Berwick and is buried in Vaux-En-Amienois Communal Cemetery, Somme, France. His Headstone is inscribed ” Only Son Of Thos. W. And Lily Boal Berwick-On-Tweed England”. This village housed a Trench Mortar Battery school and so it maybe that he was wounded in a training accident. There are only 15 War Graves here. It is sad to note that he had just been accepted for a Commission was was to return to England for Officer training only days after the accident. The photographs show two types of trench mortars.