Greenwood, John Edwin
Military Medal
Corporal
No. 40997, 109th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
Killed in action at Ypres on Thursday 16 August 1917 (aged 22)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium (Panel 160)
Bangor and District War Memorial
Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum
First Bangor Presbyterian Church
Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church Bangor
Albert Street Presbyterian Church Belfast
Newington Presbyterian Church Belfast
Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour
BIOGRAPHY
John Edwin Greenwood was born on 29 May 1895 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast and he was a son of John and Annie Greenwood (nee Burns) who were married on 11 April 1884 in Westbourne Presbyterian Church, Belfast. John Greenwood was a son of Joseph Greenwood, a spindle turner. Annie Burns was a daughter of Robert Burns, a pork cutter.
John Greenwood Senior worked as a block printer and he and Annie had ten children:
Elizabeth Wilhelmina (born 31 March 1887 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Ethel Florence (born 24 April 1889 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Isabella (born 4 January 1891 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Martha Agnes (born 23 May 1893 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
John Edwin (born 29 May 1895 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Albert Victor (born 15 May 1897 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Ernest (born 1 September 1899 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Joseph (born 13 November 1901 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Annie (born 3 October 1904 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
Cecil (born 11 May 1909 at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale, Belfast)
When they lived in Belfast the Greenwood family lived at 21 Ardmoulin Avenue, Woodvale; at 67 Limestone Road and in Newington Avenue before they moved to 5 Holborn Avenue, Bangor.
John Edwin Greenwood lived at 46 Newington Avenue, Belfast and he worked as an apprentice mechanic with John Shaw Brown and Sons (Damask and Linen Manufacturers) Belfast before enlisting in Belfast at the outbreak of war. He had been a member of the North Belfast Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Corporal John Edwin Greenwood served with the 109th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and went to France on 5 October 1915. He was awarded the Military Medal for his actions when an ammunition train pulling nine trucks caught fire. Along with Private J H Feely (No. 54552) from Rostrevor, Sergeant R Hall (No. 41001) and Sergeant Major Thomas Harland (No. 41008) from Whiteabbey, Corporal Greenwood uncoupled and pushed eight of the ammunition trucks down the line and out of danger. This work was done amidst a hail of shells and fragments exploding from the ninth truck which was burning fiercely. At any moment, the contents of any one of the other eight trucks might also have ignited and exploded.
Corporal John Edwin Greenwood was 22 when he was killed in action on 16 August 1917 at the Battle of Langemarck and he has no known grave.
Corporal John Edwin Greenwood is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial; on the Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque; in the
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum (Page 45); in First Bangor Presbyterian Church; in Hamilton Road Bangor Presbyterian Church; in Albert Street and Newington Presbyterian Churches in Belfast and in the Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour (Page 234).
During the war his brother Albert Victor also served with the RAMC. His father John died on 31 October 1928 (aged 65) and his mother Annie died on 20 March 1955 (aged 91). Both were buried in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor.