John (Jack) Whitaker volunteered to join the Grenadier Guards in August 1914, and served in France and Belgium from 1915 until he was killed in action at Passchendaele. Though a machine gunner, he served as a stretcher bearer for much of his time, as when he was killed. His chaplain mourned his loss, describing him as his right-hand man, doing the work of six. Jack married on a brief return to Derby in May 1917, bur probably never saw his wife Lilian again. Lilian never re-married, and there were no children. Jack's body was never identified, and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial.

Alan Whitaker