Notes
The Roll lists his address as 23 Sergeant Street. It indicates that he had received the Military Medal; however, there is no official record of him having ever received such an award.
(CWGC records that Sapper John James Oakley, regimental number 105120, died aged 29 on 19/4/1918 serving in 211th Field Company of the Royal Engineers, and is buried in grave B.4 at Cinq Ruse British Cemetery at Hazebrouck in France. They record him as the son of Arthur and Eliza Oakley of 23 Searjent Street, Peterborough, and make no mention of a Military Medal. Soldiers Died in the Great War records that John was a native of Peterborough who enlisted in Doncaster; it omitted any mention of a Military Medal. The Medal Rolls record the award of John's British and Victory medals, but mention no Military Medal. The Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects record that John's father Arthur was his legatee; they likewise have no annotation re a Military Medal. John's Army service file records that he was living at 23 Sergeant Street when he enlisted on 31/5/1915 as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers; he later moved to 39 Wilton Street, Doncaster. He was first posted overseas on 14/7/1916. Having been wounded and gassed on 23/7/1917, he returned to the UK on 8/8/1917. He returned to France on 3/4/1918, and was killed in action on 19/4/1918. His Army file makes no mention of any award of a Military Medal. John Oakley is also commemorated on his parents' headstone in Broadway Cemetery in Peterborough - see WMR reference 70037. That inscription made no mention of a Military Medal. The London Gazette has no record of an MM being awarded to John.
When John's death was announced on 4/5/1918 in the Peterborough Advertiser, they appended "MM" to his name, inferring he had received the Military Medal. As the newspaper archive was one of the prime sources of information from which the Peterborough Roll of Honour was compiled, the spurious MM reference was evidently copied into it. For the same reason, the MM suffix was likewise copied into John Oakley's entry in the Peterborough WW1 Book of Remembrance).