Source: November 1917 casualty.
Family Search: When John Henry Mears was born on 30 March 1897, in Greenwich, London, England, United Kingdom, his father, John Henry Mears, was 30 and his mother, Mary Pethers, was 21. He lived in Chatham, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada in 1915. He registered for military service in 1915. In 1915, at the age of 18, his occupation is listed as printer. He died on 11 November 1917, in Passendale, West Flanders, Belgium, at the age of 20, and was buried in Ieper, West Flanders, Belgium.
His brother, Private Frederick William Mears (189767) also served with the 18th Battalion.
His father, John Henry Rollo (Rotto) Mears also served. He was born circa 1866 so he was over age when he enlisted.
This man enlisted with the the 91st Battalion on 17 November 1915 at the age of 18-year and 9-months at Chatham and was transferred to the 186th Battalion 28 February 1916.
Born at Greenwich,, England, he lived with his father, John Mears at 39 Ingram Street, Chatham, Ontario. He was a printer and an adherent to the Church of England. He stood 5′ 3″ tall at 115 pounds and had a fair complexion, brown hair and eyes and had not distinguishing marks or features.
Even at that young age he was appointed a Lance-Corporal on 1 April 1916 and assigned to attend the Non-Commissioned School of Instruction from 1 May to 29 June 1916.
The 186th Battalion sailed on 28 March 1917 for England and arrived in Liverpool 7 April 1917.
After just over 4-months of training he was sent overseas 24 August 1917 and after passing through No. 2 Canadian Infantry Base Depot he joined the 18th Battalion “in the field” on 5 September 1917.
His service record shows he was wounded 11 November 1917 while serving at Passchendaele. His Circumstances of Death Card reads, ““Killed in Action” Whilst acting as a Company runner during operations south of Passchendaele, and after delivering a message to Battalion Headquarters, he was on his return journey when killed by enemy shell fire.”
Runners were a very important part of the chain of command and being a runner was known to be a hazardous assignment.
The 18th Battalion War Diary relates for the days of November 9/10/11/12 the following:
“During the whole of this tour the Officers and men held this part of the line under the most severe conditions possible. Great difficulty was experienced in the evacuating of casualties from the front line to R.A.P.s and dressing stations. Front line trenches were subjected to frequent barrages and the rear country [area] was also heavily shelled and bombed. The supports on this front were reached by a series of tracks, being trench mat walks, and rations had to be carried by mules up these tracks. Each track being subjected to continual shellfire, the transport and ration parties were fortunate in escaping with the loss of 3 men killed and 1 mule which fell off the duckboard track and owing to the depth of the mud had to be shot. Splendid work was done by the Battalion Stretcher bearers in tending and evacuating the wounded.”
This gives some idea of the horrible conditions Private Mears and his comrades had to contend with during their service during the Battle of Passchendaele.
He is buried along with 5 other comrades of the 18th Battalion at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
War Diary of the 18th Battalion CEF 