Early Life :

Family :

Education & Career :

John and his brothers attended Sherborne School as day boys. John Attended Sherborne School (day boy and Abbey House) September 1890-1894; 6th form; Digby Mathematics and Science Prize.

Attended the Royal Military Academy.

Siblings:
Mary Charlotte McEnery (1869-) (Mother Mary Ursula).
Kathleen Ellen McEnery (1871-1955).
William Augustine McEnery (1873-1957) (attended Sherborne School as a day boy 1885-1893).
Theresa Anna Maria McEnery (1875-1949) (married George Foster Gretton).
Edward Henry McEnery (1876-1924) (attended Sherborne School as a day boy 1890-1894).
Reginald Thomas McEnery(1880-1971) (attended Sherborne School as a day boy 1893-1898)
Margaret Josephine McEnery (1885-1958)

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.

The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.

Detail :

At 10 pm on 26 October 1914, John was accidentally shot by an Infantry Sentry on the line of trenches at Yser near Zandvoorde.

His body was buried by Captain T. Weeding, 2nd Queen’s Regiment, and Lieutenant Thatcher, RAMC, at about 250 years north-east of the windmill on the Veldhock to Zandvoorde Road, a board with his name on it marking the grave. News of John’s death appeared in the Western Gazette on 30 October 1914.

Western Gazette, 4 September 1914:
A FINE EXAMPLE. No fewer than seven members of Dr. McEnery’s family are serving their country in different capacities in the great war. Miss McEnery, his eldest daughter, has been nursing the wounded in Belgium since the commencement of hostilities, Captain McEnery [John Aloysius McEnery (1877-1914)], of the Royal Engineers, the doctor’s third son, is at Southampton at present with about 300 men expecting orders to cross the Channel every day, while his second son Edward, who served in the Boer War, was in the Dorset Yeomanry, and afterwards held a commission in the Belfast Yeomanry, is coming home to go to the front. On the day war was declared, Dr McEnery’s eldest son, who is a doctor, went to the War Office and gave in his name as a surgeon for service in the Army. Dr McEnery’s youngest daughter, who is at present house surgeon at the Victoria Hospital, Burnley, has also volunteered her services at the front as a doctor, while Captain Reginald McEnery, another son, who is in India, has volunteered for home service. Miss K. McEnery, who is at home, is a Red Cross nurse. Neither is Dr McEnery idle, for his is placing himself and his motor car at the disposal of the authorities, and is traversing the countryside seeking and, as a magistrate, attesting recruits.

Western Gazette, 30 October 1914
CAPTAIN JOHN MCENERY KILLED AT THE FRONT. Dr McEnery received the distressing intimation from the War Office yesterday (Thursday) morning that his son, Captain John A. McEnery commanding the 54th Field Company, Royal Engineers, has been killed at the Front. The deepest sympathy of Sherborne people generally will go out to Dr McEnery and his family in this sad blow which has befallen them.

Masonic :

He was the Senior Warden in his Lodge.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Website : Old Shirburnian Society
• Researcher : Tom Hawley