62971, Private, 1st Company, Royal Army Medical Corps.
Died on the 25th October 1918 aged 45.
John Pilkington was born in Liverpool in 1875. He married his wife, Dorcas, in Manchester and the couple had their first child, Frederick, in the city. The 1911 Census shows that John & Dorcas moved to Stevenage where they lived at 71 Albert Street. It was here that the couple had two more children, Alec & Gladys. By the time John joined the Army the family had moved to 11 Middle Row.
His eldest son was serving as a Private in the Royal Fusiliers. John had worked as a ticket collector for Great Northern Railways for eight years at Hitchin railway station and had also worked for the company at Nottingham giving a total of 20 years service. He was a Trade Union official in the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and spent most of his spare time working for the cause. He also played the organ at the local Roman Catholic Church and was keenly interested in Ambulance work. He held a First Aid proficiency medal and had spent three years at the school of sanitation in Aldershot. He was one of the first married men from Stevenage to volunteer for the Army and joined up in 1915. His abilities in First Aid made him a prime candidate for the RAMC.
He died from the effects of Influenza at Aldershot hospital on the 25th October 1918.
John is buried in the Aldershot Military Cemetery. (Grave.R.351.)
His wife never re-married and died, a war widow, in 1963.