Private John Risley

: John was born in 1887 to Charles Edward and Ann Harriett Risley. He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Clapham on 17 July 1887. He was the youngest of at least four children, with older siblings Charles, Caroline, and George. The family lived in Clapham, where John’s father worked as a hawker, or door to door salesman.

John married Florence Mary Ann Lovatt in Christ Church, Mitcham, on 12 March, 1906. The couple was living at 10 Bellamy Street in Balham in 1911 with their children, John and Florence. John Sr. worked as a carman, and Florence Sr. was a charwoman. Florence’s job, coupled with the small size of their house (someone originally wrote 1 parlour under number of rooms, but crossed it out and wrote in one room, which either means the house was only one room, or it was perhaps one or two bedrooms + a parlour), means that the family was likely quite poor.

John enlisted in 1916 in Kingston, entering active service on 9 December 1916, and was killed only two months later, on 10 February 1917, aged 29. John died at Loos, and is buried in the Philesophe British Cemetery in Mazingarbe. At some point, his family had moved to 57 High Street, Colliers Wood, which is where his widow, Florence, is listed as living on CWGC, and he is thus also commemorated at Christ Church in Colliers Wood.