John's Story.
EARLY LIFE
John Broadhurst was born in Macclesfield on 7 March and baptised at Christ Church on 4 April 1894, the son of Emily Amelia and Charles Broadhurst, a gardener of 242 Crompton Road, Macclesfield. In 1901, seven-year-old John was living there with his parents and siblings Charles (15), Eliza (12), William (11), and Tom (9).
WW1 SERVICE
On 19 September 1914 John joined the local 7th (Territorial) Cheshire Regiment with service number 2336, stating that he was a labourer. He was sent for training but was discharged on 12 March 1915 as medically unfit for service. John was found to be suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and died at the family home in Crompton Road, Macclesfield on 27 February 1917.
John's death was reported in the Macclesfield Times on 9 March 1917:
BROADHURST - February 27th, at 242 Crompton Road, John Broadhurst, aged 22 years.
COMMEMORATION
John Broadhurst is buried in a family grave in Macclesfield Cemetery, plot number H.6390. The memorial stone bears the inscription also John their beloved son died February 27th 1917 aged 23 years.
In Macclesfield, John Broadhurst is probably the man of that name commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall and St Michael's Church war memorials.
NOTES
Another Macclesfield man, Jack Broadhurst, served with the Australian forces and was killed in France on 2 April 1917.
SOURCES
Cheshire Parish Baptism Registers (Find My Past): Christ Church, Macclesfield
1901 Census
British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920 WO364 (Ancestry): Piece 401
Family History Society of Cheshire (FHSC): Macclesfield Area Monumental Inscriptions
Macclesfield Times: 9 March 1917
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.