John Leslie Moores was born in 1895 in Longsight, Manchester.
In 1901 his father, also called John, was living and working in Manchester as a clerk on the railway. He was married to Mary and they had three children; Elsie (7), John (5) and Hilda (3).
By 1911 John had retired on a railway pension and the family had moved to Inglemount, Bryn y Felin, Dyserth. Both John (15) and Hilda(13) were in school.
In the latter part of 1915 young John enlisted as a Private with the 1st/10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. He served 2 years and nine months before dying from his wounds on 13th of July 1918. He was buried in Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France. The headstone on his grave reads “An affectionate son, a loving brother. He died for King and Country”
John Moores senior was a member of Dyserth Parish Council.
In January 1918 the Council decided to call a public meeting to discuss a war memorial for the village. This took place at the school the following month. The meeting was chaired by the vicar, J Evans Jones and the proposal was passed unanimously. There then followed a discussion on the form a memorial might take. Mr Williams, Bodlondeb, proposed the erection of a memorial hall. Quarry owner Mr W L Hobbs “suggested the memorial be in the form of a monument to be erected of limestone with a marble slab fixed to it on which the names of those that had fallen and those that had fought in the present war be engraved”
A “strong committee” was subsequently formed to investigate the matter.
Ironically on the 26th of July of that year the minutes recorded that “the chairman referred to the sad news from the battlefields in France of the death of the only son of Mr Moores”. Sympathetic remarks were made by his colleagues on the Council and condolences extended to him and his family.
In the October meeting of the Parish Council the newly bereaved Mr Moores raised the question of a Parish War Memorial. However despite the formation of the War Memorial Committee nothing seems to have happened until 1950 when the Village War Memorial became a reality.
Mr and Mrs Moores may have taken matters into their own hands because they erected their own memorial to their son in Dyserth churchyard.
John Leslie Moores is also commemorated on the Romiley Memorial, Stockport. An account of his life can be read at: www.stockport1914-1918.co.uk
The full story of Dyserth War Memorial can be found on the memorial page.
