SPRATTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY


Private Stephen PAGE

9th Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps A205123 and 22nd Training Reserve 6485


Stephen was born in Spratton on 30 December 1898.  He was the son of Fanny Ellen Page, a single mother aged only 18 when he was born.  They lived with Fanny’s mother, Mary Page at the house of her brother John (Jack) Page in Baker’s Lane.  John Page was a farm labourer and Stephen’s great uncle. The Pages were a long-established Spratton family.

Stephen was a butcher and baker and enlisted with the Training Reserve on 2 February 1916 aged just 18.  He was transferred to the Kings Royal Rifle Corps on 12 March 1917 and posted to France two days later. On 21 March 1918 he was wounded in the left shoulder and captured at Montcourt on the Western Front at the start of the German’s “Great Offensive”.  On that day 16,000 Allied troops were captured along with 200 guns.  He was repatriated and eventually discharged as physically unfit on 17 February 1919.  He arrived home in Spratton in January 1919 with three other returning prisoners of war. The vicar wrote in his Parish Newsletter, “It is a great joy to welcome them back from captivity and suffering…We trust they will speedily regain their strength and be none the worse for the hardships they have endured.” 

Stephen was awarded Silver War Badge to wear at home to show he had been wounded in the war.  He was also awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Stephen died in 1978 in Northampton aged 80.

King’s Royal Rifle Corps badge
King’s Royal Rifle Corps badge
King’s Royal Rifle Corps badge
King’s Royal Rifle Corps badge
Silver War Badge
Silver War Badge
Silver War Badge
Silver War Badge