John Devan was born in Gibraltar in the autumn of 1879 and was the son of Michael and Catharine. Michael was a gunner in the Royal Artillery, and his work took the family around the world, from Britain, to Jersey, to Japan. The 1881 census found them living in family quarters at Dover Castle in Kent.

Much of John’s life is lost to time, and the documents that remain give only a tantalising glimpse into it. He married Mary Byrne in around 1913: she came from Cashel in County Tipperary, so it is fair to assume that John spent time in Ireland. The couple had a daughter – Catharine – who was born in February 1914.

John’s entry on the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects is equally intriguing. It shows that he enlisted in the army on 24th April 1905, and worked as a kitchen man. A Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Scots Guards, in the opening months of the First World War, he was based in a camp in Lyndhurst, Hampshire.

The only other document relating to Private Devan is his entry on the Pension Ledger: this confirms that he died on 4th October 1914, of self inflicted wounds during insanity. He was 35 years of age.

Mary and Catharine were still in Ireland at this point, and so John Devan was laid to rest in Lyndhurst Cemetery, not far from the camp in which he had been based.

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