Died
19 March 1919
Born
6 January 1895
Sources
Ancestry
Barrow News
Longlongtrail website
Grave & CWGC website
Cumbria BMD
Place
Walks
Themes
Private John Troughton
One of a number of released Prisoners of War who died soon after their return, and are buried in Barrow Cemetery. Food for PoWs was notoriously inadequate: the Royal Navy blockade on German ports had an effect, and even the civilian German population were underfed.
Barrow News 22 March 1919 reports:
Barrow News 22 March 1919BACK FROM HUNLAND TO DIE
We give this week the photo of another Barrovian who has reached England, after being a victim to the tender consideration of the Huns, only to die. Pte. John Troughton, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Troughton, 45, Salthouse-road, joined the Royal Fusiliers in February, 1917. He went out to France, and was captured by the Huns in September last year at Cambrai. After the signing of the armistice, he reached “Blighty” on Christmas Eve, and was in such a state of health that he had to be taken to the Orton Military Hospital at Epsom, where he succumbed on the 12th inst. (sic. The grave & CWGC website say 19 March). In civil life he was a bricklayer’s labourer, was 24 years of age, and employed by Mr. Paul. He leaves a sister to mourn his loss.
The longlongtrail.co.uk website says that the hospital was Horton (County of London) War Hospital. Formerly the London County Asylum, Horton, Epsom.
1911 Census
On Ancestry, the 1911 Census gives the information that at 24 Crellin Street lived Mary Blackburn (60), Head, Fishmonger Dealer (own account), born Broughton, Cumberland; Steve Troughton (50), brother, bricklayer’s labourer, born Broughton, Cumberland; John Troughton (16), son (This in misleading: he is the son of Stephen, not the head of the household), bricklayer’s labourer, born Barrow, Lancs; Parker (Identified as Barker by Ancestry) Troughton (13), son, at school/ part-time errand boy, born Barrow, Lancs.; Maggie Troughton (11), daughter, at school, born Barrow, Lancs.; George Troughton (21), nephew, boilermaker, shipbuilding yard, born Barrow, Lancs.; and two boarders, John Dorrian (28), Fitter’s labourer, shipbuilding, born Cleator Moor, Cumberland; and John James Nicholson (17), boilermaker, born Barrow, Lancs.
1901 Census
Again on Ancestry (and in an Ancestry family tree), the household living at 15 Penrith Street at the 1901 Census is Stephen Troughton (39), bricklayer’s labourer, born Broughton, Cumberland; Annie Troughton (39), wife, born Appelby (sic), Westmorland; John Troughton (6), born Barrow; Parker Troughton (3), born Barrow; Margaret (1), born Barrow; and two lodgers, John and Mary J. Vickers, both 23 and born in Barrow. John was a blacksmith.
The family tree gives John’s DoB as 5 Jan 1895; Parker’s 18 April 1897, and Margaret Telford Troughton’s as 5 June 1899. Father Stephen died on 26 July 1917. Cumbria BMD gives an Annie Troughton dying in Barrow in 1909.
