1900s-1945
Private John Everest, who served with the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment — formally the Duke of Cambridge's Own — under the number G/29356, was born in the first half of 1888, the son of John and Ann Everest. Before military service he lived in Penshurst, Kent, and worked for Lady Foulkes of Redleaf. By 1915 he was lodging at Little Moorden, where his father was landlord, and his name appeared on that year's Leigh Electoral Register.
He enlisted at Tonbridge in Kent and earned one campaign medal during his service. On 28 October 1916 he took part in an engagement from which he did not return; he was 28 years old when he lost his life.
News reached his parents slowly. A War Office notice of 28 November 1916 reported that Private Everest had been wounded at a place not stated, and the Army Council sent its sympathy and regret. A further communication, dated 21 December 1916, posted him as wounded and missing, and information was also passed to Lady Foulkes. Two cards arrived from the YMCA, and The Courier carried a notice on 27 April 1917.
His name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme, and he is remembered on the war memorials at Leigh, Chiddingstone Causeway and Penshurst, as well as that at Edenbridge Hospital. This profile was last updated on 7 November 2008.