Day, Jack

Jack was born in Ashwell, Hertfordshire on 6 April 1891, the sixth son of Leopold and Mary Ann Elizabeth (nee Bonfield) Day. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

Jack enlisted on 14 July 1915 with the Royal Naval Air Service, Air Mechanic, Regimental Number 6479. He was initially based on the HMS President II which was a shore-based ship which moved to where the personnel were required, firstly in Felixstowe, three months in Dunkirk, then back to England at Folkstone. On 6 July 1917 he transferred to the Royal Air Force, Regimental Number 205530, and was stationed at the Wormwood Scrubs airship station for a few months. In August 1918 Jack joined the Observation Section stationed in Great Yarmouth and Purfleet before being demobbed on 30 April 1920. Jack survived the War.

Jack was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

Jack helped in the family bakery in Ashwell, but his military records list him as a farmer.

Jack married Lucy Octavia Blanche Hart in the first quarter 1917 at Elham, Kent. They had three children, John Alfred born 1917, Eugenie born 1919 and George born 1922. The 1939 census shows them living in Acton, Middlesex with Jack a garage proprietor; it also suggests there may have been a fourth child.

It is not known when he died.

Jack’s brothers Harry, Cyril, and Edward served in the War and survived. Arthur was killed in action at Abbeville on the Somme.