John Christie's Story.
Birkenhead News 21 August 1915“THE FIRST TO DIE.”
Private Dobbing.
Mr. and Mrs. Dobbing, of 10, Rose Street, Exmouth Street, yesterday received an official message conveying the sad intelligence that their son, Pte. John Christie Dobbing, of the 4th Cheshires (the old “Greys”) died on August 14th of wounds received in action “near the Dardanelles.”
Pte. Dobbing was the eldest of eight brothers, and was only 18 years of age. He joined the 4th Cheshires on November 5th last, being at that time an apprentice shipwright at Messrs. Cammell Laird’s. He was formerly a scholar at St. Peter’s School, and was a respected member of the Grange Road West Presbyterian Church. Great sympathy is felt with Mr. and Mrs. Dobbing in the loss of a gallant son.
Pte. Dobbing was a nephew of the late Company Sergt. Major A. McKay, R.E., who was accorded an inspiring military funeral in Birkenhead.
In a letter to his mother, which was written while the gallant young soldier was on the way to death, he said, “We don’t know where we are bound for, and already most of the lads have been seasick, but I was lucky and escaped it. I have no idea where we shall eventually land, but they say it is _ days voyage. I hear that the people of Birkenhead started to call us the ‘scruffy 4th,’ and the ‘never budges.’ This will be rather a surprise for them, won’t it? We’ll show ‘em though, and the stay at homes will have long faces when we come home.”
“It almost breaks my heart to think that he has gone so soon.” Said his mother.
A further newspaper article appeared in the Birkenhead News in December 1916
A Grave on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Where a 4th Cheshire Man Rests.
Presented herewith is a photographic reproduction of a grave on the Gallipoli peninsula which contains the remains of Private John Dobbing, the first 4th Cheshire man to die in hospital as a consequence of wounds received in action in the Dardanelles. It is at Lemnos where he is interred, and the photograph will testify to the labour of love carried out in the marking of the grave of a man who fought and died for England.
The portrait has been sent to Mrs. Jean Dobbing, of 10, Rose Street, Birkenhead, by Shipwright Jack Hill, to whom Mrs. Dobbing is exceedingly grateful. Hill is stationed at Madros Harbour, and knew Pte. Dobbing, who was an apprentice shipwright. In asking us to publish this photograph Mrs. Dobbing says her object is “that wives and mothers who are mourning loved ones may see how our heroes’ graves are kept even in far away Gallipoli. I think the coming of this photo will set all doubts at rest. It can plainly be seen the graves of our loved are tended carefully and kept very neat. If you think it interesting enough to publish may it comfort the others as it had me …. The letters are cut out on the cross and painted black.”
John Dobbing’s photograph and extracts from the newspapers by Chris Booth