Major in the (Queen's Own Royal) Glasgow Yeomanry. Killed in action at Gallipoli and believed to be buried in Pink Farm Cemetery, Helles, Turkey, where there is a memorial to him.
John Russell Wardle was born 25 December 1878, the seventh of the eight children of Henry Wardle (1832-1892) and Mary Ellen Fosbrooke Wardle née Salt (1841-1929). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1879 in the Burton-upon-Trent registration district, Staffordshire. On 22 January 1879 he was baptised at Winshill, Derbyshire.
He is shown as aged 2 years in the 1881 census living in Highfields House, Ashby Road, Winshill, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with his parents and four of his older siblings: Mary Wardle (1866-1946); Elizabeth Wardle (170-1933); Henry Wardle (1875-1933) and Thomas Erskine Wardle (1877-1944), together with a governess, a lady's help and a housekeeper. His father was described as a brewer.
In the 1881 census he is shown as a boarding scholar at Uppingham School and residing with 28 other pupils in Springfield, Stockerston Road, Uppingham, Rutland, whilst his family were living at The Hall, Middle Mayfield, Ashbourne, Staffordshire.
He was described as an analytical chemist in the 1901 census boarding at 11 Blythewood Drive, Glasgow Park, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the home of a Mrs Kate Barton.
On 25 January 1911 he married Alma Winter Harris (1884-1957) at St Margaret's Church, Westminster, where in the marriage register he is described as a bachelor and a maltster living at 30 Duncarn Street, Glasgow, whilst his wife is shown as a spinster residing at Westminster Palace Hotel, Victoria Street, London, SW1, the daughter of the late George Harris. They had two children: Norman Henry Russell Wardle (1912-1981) and Elizabeth Alma Wardle (1914-1984).
He was serving as a Major in 1/1st Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry when he entered Gallipoli in October 1915. He was killed in action by a bursting shell, aged 37 years, on 2 January 1916 and his body was buried in the Pink Farm Cemetery near the village of Krithia on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. Following the end of World War One the Imperial War Graves Commission were unable to locate individually well over 100 servicemen's bodies in the cemetery and consequently they are commemorated by special stone memorials rather than headstones.
Probate records show that his address had been The Linn, Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and that his widow had been nominated as his executrix in his will dated 14 May 1915. Probate was granted on 1 May 1916 and his estate totalled £3,360-19s-3d. His army effects totalling £146-18s-2d were sent by 23 November 1916 to his widow. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, The British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as MAJOR WARDLE J.R. Q.O.R.GLAS.YEOMANRY on the London hop trade war memorial, 32-34 Borough High Street, London, SE1 and as Wardle. R. F. on the Roll of Honour at Uppiingham School. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Scottish National War Memorial website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk and Andrew Behan.
