Private John Gwyne Kerle Anning


Service Army Service No. 10762 Cap badge Devonshire Regiment
Rank Private
Regiment:Devonshire Regiment, 8th Service Battalionn
Date of Birth: 1893
Born Dawlish
Date of Death: 25/09/1915
Memorial: Dawlish Memorial Inscription ANNING J. PTE DEVON REGT

Service History

John Gwyne Kerswell Anning enlisted with the Devonshire Regiment in Exeter and the following newspaper report suggests that it may have followed a local recruiting drive – John Anning (10762) John Dew (10728), Albert John Hooper (10723).

The 8th (service) Battalion was the first of the battalions formed from volunteers to form Kitchener's New Army. Recruiting was so successful that a 9th (Service) Battalion was also formed.

Anning was one of eight Dawlish men who were killed on the first day of the Battle of Loos involving the Devonshire Regiment.

Association with Dawlish

John Gwyne Kerswell Anning was the only son of John Kerswell Anning (1845 – 1921) and Elizabeth Luscombe Cuming Kerle (Anning) (1856- 1942).

John and Elizabeth had a young family and in 1901 they lived at The Club, Marine Parade where the husband is shown as a Lodging House Keeper. The family comprised:

John Kerswell Anning, 56, Elizabeth J C Anning, wife, 45, Elizabeth Rossiter Kerle Anning, 18 (mother's help/domestic) Annette Adeline Anning, 8 and John G K Anning, 7.

Private Anning came home from Manchester for his holiday in August, 1914, and was among the first to enlist in his county regiment, joining Buller's Own.” ...”About a year before war broke out he left home for the North of England, where he was apprenticed as a brass-worker.”

Devon Roll of Honour Anning, John, Pte, Devon Regt - no date or place of death given
Additional Information Commonwealth War Graves Site


Next of Kin: John Kerswell Anning, father
Last Known Address: Beachcroft, Marine Parade, Dawlish

Cap badge Devonshire Regiment
Cap badge -The Devonshire Regiment

Loos Centenary - Wreath from Devonshire Regt

ANNING inscribed at Dud Corner Cemetery near Loos

Starcross churchyard

Free Birth Marriage Death records

Newspaper extracts from the Dawlish Gazette collection in care of Dawlish Museum

Refs via subscription sites:

Census records

National Newspaper Archive

Ancestry site/ Morrison and Hill family Trees.