Notes
The Roll lists John's address as 10 Hankey Street. (His younger brother Harry Forth also died in WW1, and is named on the Roll of Honour). The Roll wrongly recorded John's surname as Forth. Although that was the surname by which he was usually known, his legal surname was actually Makey, his birth having been registered under his mother's maiden name.
(CWGC records that Sapper John Forth Makey, regimental number 146618, died aged 24 on 23/10/1916 while serving in the 2nd Field Company of the Royal Engineers, and is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial in France. They record him as the son of John & Elizabeth Forth of 119 Mayor's Walk, Peterborough. His birth in Crowland was registered in the Peterborough District as 'John Forth Makey' in the June quarter of 1892; his parents, John Forth and Mary Elizabeth Makey, married later that year. On the 1901 census John junior was living with his parents at Devonshire Cottages in Gladstone Street, Peterborough; he was recorded under the surname Forth. By the 1911 census he was an apprentice carpenter, lodging at Haltoft End in Freiston, Lincolnshire; he was recorded on that census under the surname Forth.
When John enlisted in the Army he did so under his legal surname of Makey, which is therefore the name recorded on all his surviving military records. Soldiers Died in the Great War records that he enlisted in Peterborough. The Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects record that his legatee was Miss Fanny Reedman. The Probate Index, on which his surname is also recorded as Makey, indicates that he left a Will naming Fanny Reedman as his executrix; his address for Probate was 12 Eastgate, Peterborough. When his death was announced on 25/11/1916 in the Peterborough Advertiser, he was referred to as "Sapper Jack Forth" of the Royal Engineers, "eldest son of Mr & Mrs J Forth of Hankey Street". It was stated that he had been reported as missing since 23rd October 1916, but that his Sergeant had now written, returning some effects and stating he had buried John on 16th November. John was reported to have joined the Army on 29/2/1916, having previously been a telegraph messenger at Peterborough Post Office. On 23/12/1916 the Peterborough Advertiser quoted from the actual letter that had been sent to Miss Reedman by Sergeant Woodland, in which he had informed her that he had been in charge of a burial party on 16th November, and that among those he had buried was "Jack Forth": He informed her that "He was buried very near to the spot where he fell in the Somme district. I am not allowed to say exactly where". He expressed his sympathies and hoped that it would be some consolation to know that her dear friend had been buried "and not left out". Evidently, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was unable to locate the grave after the War, so John is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial).