John Follansbee Bredin Delap, Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
John F.B. Delap was killed in action on 18th October 1916, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France aged just 19.
Born 30th July 1897 in London to Rev. Louis Delap & Jennie Charlotte Follansbee. John was baptised on 10th November 1897 at St James Church, Paddington.
John does not appear on the 1911 Census with his family who are living in Rotherhithe, Bermondsey. Instead in 1910 and known as Johnnie, he was attending Saint Ronan’s School, West Worthing, Sussex with his brother, Bredin.
He won prizes for gymnastics and in 1911 he won a classics prize and played for the cricket team. He was recorded on the school 1911 census as a boarder. In 1912 he was a noted football player being one of the most improved players of the side.
John was confirmed by the Bishop of Chichester in 1912. In this year he went on to Repton School, where in 1913 he ‘won great glory in athletics’.
On 8th December 1912 his father and mother moved into the Vicarage in Benhall. The Rev. Louis Delap was the incumbent at St. Mary’s Church, Benhall from 1912 to 1933.
Johnnie returned to St Ronan’s in April 1913 and 1915 to play in The Old boy’s Cricket Matches where he performed brilliantly. In 1915 he won House Cap for football before going to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, Berkshire.
Above & right, young John Follansbee Bredin Delap at school
From article published in the Ronian, October 1918:
IN MEMORY
John was commissioned from Cadet on 22nd December 1915 to Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princes of Wales’ Own) joining the 2nd Battalion in 1916. The Battalion stayed on the Somme, France, moving for an attack near the Le Transloy Ridges in Gueudecoourt area on the 18th October 1916. On this day John was posted as ‘wounded and missing’ after an attack on Bayonet Trench. His body was later recovered.
His fellow Officers and Men reported that John behaved splendidly in the night attack, was hit once while moving forward with the front line of his company, but got up again and continued and went on. He was hit again but refused help from his men saying ‘never mind me, go on’ and waved them forward to the attack.
His officers wrote “A splendid example of self-sacrificing gallantry” and “Although one of the youngest, he was one of the most valuable Officers we have ever had. I don’t think he knew what fear was, or if he ever did, he never showed it, which is still finer”
From an old S. Ronan’s boy on Active Service.
The following lines to Johnnie Delap came to us anonymously last term;
When in the times to be strange circumstance
Shall guide my footsteps to the foreign shore,
Where sun-dried mounds proclaim the plains of France,
Where you went bravely and were seen no more.
If in the giant voice of winds that cry
Your gay fine boyish laugh is ever lost—
Minding the love we loved with, you and I,
Love passing that of man to man, almost
A sacred gift that made us blindly true
To one another, and so quick to praise—
Then shall I go softly, thinking of you,
O best remembered from the far off days.
In August 1923 Stanley Harris wrote a small book ‘The Master and his Boys’ which he dedicated to the Memory of “Johnnie”
Killed in France, 1916, Aged 19. One of the finest of the many fine boy characters it has
been my privilege to know.
John is buried in the Australian Imperial Forces Burial Ground, Grass Lane, Flers, France.
