Today We Remember

Second Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion,
Durham Light Infantry.

Family Background

John was born on 23 June 1895 at what was known as Church Cottage and is now Catton House. He was the eldest son of the Rev. William Digby and Lucy Harriette Maud Cartwright. Church Cottage was the curate’s house and in 1906 the Rev William Cartwright succeeded his uncle as Rector and moved to the Rectory, now St Michael’s House, next to the Church. His uncle had been rector for 44 years.

John had a younger brother, Nigel, who was also killed in the war, and another brother and two sisters. Both sisters are buried in the churchyard in Aynho – one of them, Mary, became Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, and the longest serving Mistress ever (19 years); she was one of Britain’s greatest pure mathematicians.

At the outbreak of the War John was just 19 – he was educated at Wellington College and may always have been destined for the Army. He went to Sandhurst for his officer training, was commissioned in November 1914 and then joined the Durham Light Infantry. With the 2^nd Battalion he went to the Front on 15 June 1915 and was killed two months later during the attack on the Hooge Crater on the Menin Road – an attack which successfully took the piece of important ground; the British kept it for another year. It is likely that John had the awful experience of the Germans using flamethrowers for the first time (30 July 1915). At this time he was commanding D Company on the Battalion’s right flank. “The Hell of Hooge” was to be fought over for 3 years. He was the first Aynho man to be killed – the reality of war will have hit home.

John has no known grave but his name appears on Addenda Panel 57 of the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. He is remembered on the family memorial by the lectern in St Michael’s Church.