Biography of John SWINNERTON
[Ref. R.16]
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Biography of John SWINNERTON
[Ref. R.16]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Index for SWINNERTON |
John Swinnerton was born on 13 November 1911 at 101 Ponsonby Street in Liverpool which would remain the family home. Being a two-up-and-two-down terraced house it became very cramped, especially when sleeping for which they would 'top to tail'. John attended Granby Street school in Liverpool. Both John and his brother Frank were described as scallywags and were forever joking and having their sisters weak with laughter. John went out with a girl called Flo' James.
John married Edna Olive Lane at the Willesden Register Office on 8 January 1938. At that time he was living at 63 Leghorn Road in Harlesden and was employed as a clerk with the Air Ministry. Daughter Frances Olive was born later that year. The family home was at 44 Greyhound Farm Road in Speke when daughter Valerie Winifred was born in September 1941 at which time John was a prisoner of war.
John was called up in 1939 and went into the Royal Artillery as Bombadier, service number 2613266, and served in Egypy against Rommel's forces in the desert. He then served under General Wavell in Tripoli before being in the ill fated invasion of Greece which started in January 1941. In April he was captured in Kalamata Bay and reported as missing. The official report was filed in August that year. He finished up being held as prisoner 508 in Stalag 383 at Hohen Fels in Germany until the end of the war. In 1945 he was listed as being a 'Fireman & Trimmer'. As a Prisoner of War, John never got any promotion so he left the army still as a Bombadier. A newspaper cutting shows a photograph of John as a prisoner of war during the early days of his capture.
Whilst in captivity, John used the time to train as a teacher and was able to enter that profession soon after he came home. He had been a smoker but whilst in the camp tobacco was scarce so he had used dust as a substitute and his health suffered later as a consequence. He and many others made the best of their captivity and would put on plays complete with illustrated programmes.
The first job he had as a teacher was in Hounslow, Middlesex. After the war they lived at 108 Warbeck Road in Aintree. They also lived in Southport then Newport, Shropshire. Later they lived over the Botanic public house in Wavertree. John passed away at Ormskirk on 3 August 1974. Edna remarried in 1983 and passed away in 1999.
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