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Remembrance
- The Yorkshire Regiment, First World War Captain John Kenneth STEAD Close window to return to main page |
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A photo of Captain John Kenneth Stead from the Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910-1950, is shown below.
Captain John Kenneth STEAD
Royal Flying Corps, formerly 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment.
Son of John Edward and Mary Lizzie Stead, of Everdon, Redcar, Yorks.
Killed 4 February 1917. Aged 24.
Buried BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION (NORD).
The following biography of Captain Stead is from Robert
Coulson's Biographies of Officers Killed in the First World War;-
"John Stead was born at Redcar near Middlesbrough on August 26th 1892.
He was educated at Mill Hill School followed by Durham University and was
about to enter Armstrong College to study mining engineering when war broke
out.
Receiving his commission he joined the 4th Battalion on September 7th 1914
and sailed with the battalion to France in April of 1915.
They were rushed straight into the 2nd Battle of Ypres and 2nd Lt Stead was
wounded in action on April 29th 1915 at St Julien. As a result of his wounds
he was invalided home and rejoined the regiment on light duties at Northallerton
later in the year and was promoted to lieutenant on December 9th 1915.
He was attached to the Royal Flying Corps in March of 1916 and returned to
France on July 18th to serve with the 20th Squadron.
On February 1st 1917 in action well over enemy lines with his observer 2nd
Lt Jourdan he was hit suffering a compound fracture and also severing the
main artery in his leg. He flew back over twenty miles and even managed to
make a perfect landing in his FE2D aircraft.
He was taken for treatment but Captain John Kenneth Stead died of his wounds
at a Canadian casualty station at Bailleul on February 4th 1917 at the age
of 24.
John Stead was the son of Dr John Edward Stead and Mrs Mary Lizzie Stead of
“Everdon” in Redcar and his name is also inscribed on a memorial
plaque in Christ Church at Coatham in Redcar.
A brother officer wrote of him, “We all admired and respected him as
no one else in the whole flying corps. Personally I have lost one of my very
best if not closest friend in the truest sense of the word.
Kind and thoughtful I cannot imagine a more perfect gentleman and soldier”.
Further data on Captain John Kenneth Stead is provided in De Ruvigny's Roll
of Honour;-
Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910-1950, are available on Ancestry.co.uk. The data for John Kenneth Stead in this collection includes;-
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