Regiment: Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) 219th Company
Service No: 81373
Date & place of birth: January to March 1894, Petworth
Date & place of death: 3 May 1917 (aged 23), Somme, France
John was born and grew up in Petworth but had moved to Croydon where he lived with his wife and daughter before enlisting.
Family background
Private John Nelson Dean was the son of James Nelson Dean and Letitia Dean. James was a butcher who had his own shop and Letitia managed a fish shop. The family was living in North Street in 1911 and John was a grocer’s assistant. James had two brothers and three sisters.
Between September and December 1915, he married Eva Marianne Butt in Sevenoaks. She was living at 30, Dingwall Road, Croydon after the war. They had one child Kathleen, born a year later in Croydon.
Military service
John enlisted in Kingston-on-Thames into the Machine Gun Corps.
Death and commemoration
John died of wounds on 3 May 1917 aged 23 and is buried at the Cayeux Military Cemetery , Somme. He received the Victory and British medals.