An Alien returns from the Dead
Written and
researched by David
Bohl with the kind help
of his grandson Peter Hellmann and the
Great War Forum
John
Edmund Moss Brunskill (JEM) was
born in
Liverpool
1891 and played for the Aliens in the 1910-11 season.
After
an
education in Manchester he became a Chemist for the retailers
Boots.
With
the outbreak of WW1 he was an
obvious choice for the Royal Army Medical Corps and was shipped out to
the disastrous theatre of the
Balkans
in 1915, he may well have gone out with fellow Alien
Horace Tolson who
was sadly killed
in action on his return to the front in France.
Recent
Turkish Red Cross documents
reveal JEM was captured on the 23rd April 1916 in the Sinai
Desert during the
The
Battle of
Katia
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Dated
the 1st Sept 1916 in
Damascus, Syria [from Ancestry]
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Dated the 31st Oct 1916
in Afyonkarahisar(Turkey)
[from
Ancestry]
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The
address given "The Nook" in
Wavertree is still in existence
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South
Drive, Victoria
Park, Wavertree
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After
nearly three years in captivity
JEM was released after hostilities finished.
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Weekly
Casualty List has his new
regimental number #344027 [from
Ancestry]
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This
is not his actual
repatriation but illustrates the most probable route home [from
Ancestry]
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A
Pension Card states JEM was not in
the best of health and he was disembodied on 11th of March 1919
suffering "debility after malaria" plus "gun shot wound to
left
arm".
Address at time was 1 Bristol Road, Wavertree.
“For King and Empire –
Services Rendered”
Post
War Press Reports from The British Newpaper Archives
(not
for the squeamish !)
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The
Scotsman 4th Jan 1919
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Sheffield
Telegraph 4th Jan 1919
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Kington
Times 18th Jan 1919
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Dalkeith
Advertiser 18th Feb 1919
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Gloucester
Journal 19th April 1919
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Gloucester
Journal 26th April 1919
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**** My recent research has unearthed the erroneous recording of his
death by Nottinghamshire County Council on their website which lists
employees of Boots The Chemists "who made the supreme sacrifice" Boots
Retail Branches
**** The Administrator of
Nottinghamshire Great
War Roll of Honour has accepted the findings citing "duff info from
Boots" and removed his name
from the Roll ****
He
married Margaret Lowery at the end
of 1919 in Wavertree, Liverpool.
Passenger and Masonic Lodge records[Ancestry] see him
in
Cairo as a
Pharmacist in 1921.
Staying
in Cairo throughout the 1930's
he took up a lecturing position at the Faculty of Medicine.
Professor
Brunskill
[photo
Peter Hellmann]
Note: French was actually
the medium of communication among
foreigners and between foreigners and Egyptians
[Egyptian
Who's Who 1941]
[commons.wikimedia.org]
By
1941 he was on the Committee of the
Turf Club and an active member of both the Gezira Sporting Club and the
Anglo-Egyptian Union.
[Enjoying
time with his daughter in
Mannheim, Germany 1960 - Photo
Peter Hellmann]
John
passed away in Petersfield,
Hampshire in 1975
John Edmund
Moss Brunskill
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"Pip,
Squeak and Wilfred"
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All
Aliens
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© 2012 Sefton RUFC
