Dawlish World War One Project

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.

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.”