2nd Lieutenant John Alexander HELLARD
3rd (Reserve) Battalion Somerset Light Infantry attached to B Company, 1st Battalion

Date of birth: 20th March 1882
Date of death: 1st July 1916

Killed in action aged 34
Buried at Serre Road Cemetery No.2 Plot II Row A Grave 1
He was born at Stogumber, Somerset on the 20th of March 1882 the younger son of Edwin Hellard, solicitor, and Alice Jane (nee Pincoffs) of “The Knoll”, Stogumber. He was christened at Stogumber on the 25th of April 1882.

He was educated at the King’s School Canterbury from January 1896 to July 1900 where was granted a Junior Scholarship in July 1896 and a senior scholarship in July 1900. He was a keen sportsman and played for the Rugby XV in 1899 and the Cricket XI in 1900. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps.

He also played county cricket as a right hand batsman for Somerset on two occasions against Worcestershire in 1907 at Bath, where he scored fifteen runs, and in 1910 at Worcester.

On leaving school he became a solicitor’s clerk and was admitted as a solicitor in June 1906. He moved to Ceylon on the 8th of February 1913 and practiced law at 7 Prince Street, Colombo. He enlisted as a Bombardier in the Artillery Company, Colombo Town Guard on the 4th of January 1915.

He applied for a commission in the Special Reserve of Officers for the Somerset Light Infantry on the 24th of March 1915. His application was accepted and a telegram was sent to the Governor of Colombo instructing him to send John Hellard home subject to him being medically fit but by the time it arrived he had already left for England on the 25th of March 915 and was commissioned as a Probationary 2nd Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry on the 27th of April 1915, being confirmed in that rank on the 12th of August. He was attached to the 1st Battalion of his regiment in May 1916 and landed in France on the 21st of May 1916.

At 10pm on the 30th of June 1916 the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry moved up to the front line in preparation for the opening day of the Battle of the Somme which was to take place the following morning. At 7.30am on the morning of the 1st of July the battalion left their trenches to the south east of the village of Serre in support of the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade. “The sight was magnificent, line after line of men advancing at a slow trot towards the German line with hundreds of shells, ours for the most part, bursting behind the German lines”. Heavy machine gun fire forced them off to the left and they found themselves in the German trenches in a position known as the Quadrilateral. Those men who continued on were shot down from behind by Germans troops emerging from their deep dugouts. Very early on there were only two officers still unwounded and by 1.30pm they too had been struck down. By the end of the day twenty six officers and four hundred and thirty eight other ranks were listed as casualties. John Hellard was among the missing.

His father received the following telegram dated the 7th of July 1916: -

"Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lieut. J.A. Hellard 3rd Somerset Light Infantry is reported missing believed killed July 2nd (sic). The Army Council express their sympathy."

An interview was undertaken with Corporal 11403 George Hibbard B Company, 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry at Fulham Military Hospital on the 13th of July 1916: -

"Informant states that at Big Advance (France) "On Saturday July 1st, 7.30 am we started from "Valaide"? trenches, on the big advance. We reached the 3rd or 4th line of German trenches. I saw Lieut. Hellard hit though the head by a bullet - he dropped beside me. I crawled to him, and he was dead - he was hit in the wire between the 3rd and 4th line .... I crawled back myself."

Although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his date of death as the 2nd of July, the regimental history, the battalion war diary and eyewitness accounts all agree that he was killed on the 1st of July 1916.

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