John Bocking

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Lichfield branch

Died: 24 April 1918 

John Webb Bocking was born on 29 March 1896, the son of the Reverend John Child Bocking and his wife Sarah. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, and Adams's Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire. From 1905, when Bocking was 9 years old, his father Reverend Bocking was the vicar of Gnosall, Staffordshire.

In May 1914 Bocking sat the entrance examination for prospective apprentices of National Provincial Bank of England. He failed the arithmetic element, but was allowed another try, and eventually started work for the bank in October 1914, as apprentice at Lichfield branch.

Bocking joined the army in January 1916. By the time of his death in 1918 he was a Second Lieutenant in the King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry), attached to the Royal Fusiliers. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for distinguished services in the field on 31 March 1918. He died on the Somme less than a month later, on 24 April 1918. He was 22 years old. Four months later, his younger brother Bernard was also killed.