John Leo Nickerson

Census Address: 1 Belle Vue Terrace
Place of Birth: Stamford
Date of Birth: 1895
Enlistment Address: -
Regiment: 7th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
Service Numbers: 10913
Place of Death: Bourne
Date Died: 1969
1 Belle Vue Terrace, Barnack Road, Stamford
John Leo Nickerson

John Leo Nickerson

Born 8th November 1995 in Stamford to father John Charles, a brewer’s labourer and mother Lucy Caroline. Both parents were Londoners but lived in Stamford for many years, at first in Emlyn’s Court, All Saints’ parish. By 1911 they were living in 1 Belle Vue Terrace, with eight children and a lodger who was John’s younger brother.

John Leo was a hairdresser but in 1914 he enlisted as a Private in the 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, training in Winchester and Lulworth. Posted to France in 1915, in October of that year he sent his mother a postcard saying he was ‘alright’. Later promoted to Sergeant 10913 he was wounded in February 1917 but survived the war, being demobbed  on 7th June 1918.

He came back to Stamford where he married Gertrude Miles in 1921. They lived for a time at 59 Scotgate and he died at the age of 74 in Bourne.

George Harry Nickerson

George Harry Nickerson

Unfortunately his elder brother George Harry, born 1889, did not survive. Already in the Lincoln TA he re-enlisted in the 4th Lincolns in August 1914 as Lance-Corporal 2489. He was also promoted to Sergeant and sent to the Western Front but was posted as ‘missing’ in October 1915. He was later presumed dead, ‘killed in action’.

The whole family was very patriotic and John was proud of their warwork. “My mother was a member of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild and I had two sisters on munitions” Leo wrote to the Mayor of Stamford in 1920.

The Needlework Guild, founded by Queen Mary, was a national organisation in which a group of ladies met regularly to knit and sew comforts for the soldiers. The Stamford branch was started by the Mayoress and met at her home, Rock House in Scotgate. There were several works making munitions in Stamford, the biggest being Blackstone’s on Ryhall Road which may have been where John Leo’s sisters worked.

Amendments and Addenda

John Leo Nickerson was married for the second time “to Nancy Gant, which took place in 1930. They had five sons: Basil, John, Alan, Colin and Gordon, many if not all of whom attended Stamford Boys School.”