Private John Lackenby

Private John William Lackenby, 1st/5th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Flanders on 10th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive on the River Lys aged 34. He was the son of Jane and the late Robert Lackenby and the husband of Margaret Lackenby of Coupland, Kirknewton, Wooler, Northumberland. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Flanders, Belgium. The photographs show Allied troops in defensive positions preparing to resist the oncoming Germans. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.