Ernest Bracewell's collection of photos includes one of a lad with fair hair in hospital blues with "Joe Jefferson" written on the back. Another photo shows an unidentified teenage soldier and two younger boys. Comparing the two photos, I'm sure the teenager in the left hand photo below is Joe.
I think Joe is John Joseph Jefferson, the younger brother of Ernest's friend Coates Jefferson. Joe was born on 21 December 1897 in Meanwood, then a rural area on the edge of Leeds. He was the third son of Hodgson Coates Jefferson, a dairyman, and his wife Eleanor. The censuses for 1901 and 1911 show the family living on Tunnel How Hill, Meanwood (known locally as King Alfred's Castle). However by 1911 Joe had left home and was living not far away on Magson's dairy farm in Moortown where he helped deliver milk. He later trained as a blacksmith which looks to have stood him in good stead when he came to join the army.
Joe enlisted in King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on 8 September 1914 at the tender age of 16, using his first name of John, before being transferred to A/95 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on 19 December with the rank of driver and roll number 88395. On 18 April 1915 he acquired the rank of shoeing smith and he left for France in September of that year with A/97 Brigade.
The left hand photo above, showing Joe in his Royal Artillery uniform, was probably taken at some point in 1915 before he went to France. The boys sitting in front of him must surely be his younger brothers Albert and Fred. Albert would have been 11 or 12 in 1915 and Fred 9 or 10.
Joe rejoined A/95 Brigade on 30 August 1916 but returned to the UK shortly afterwards and spent the following year in the reserves - first with 5C Reserve Brigade at Charlton Park, Woolwich and then 4B Reserve Brigade (from 1 March 1917) with the rank of gunner. On 7 August 1917 he was transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery as a driver (with a new roll no. of 183751) before being posted to India on 24 September 1917 - he joined 68 Howitzer Brigade a couple of months later on 26 November. He wasn't in India for long as he was back in the UK on 14 January 1918, joining the Marine Expeditionary Force to begin with and then moving to 384 Siege Battery a month later. He became a shoeing smith once again on 8 January 1919. He spent some time in South General Hospital Birmingham around 27 May 1919 - this may well have been when the photo showing Joe in hospital blues was taken.
Joe was demobbed on 11 July 1919 but re-enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery on 3 October 1919 and went on to serve in the Black Sea and Egypt. He was certified as a 1st Class Shoeing Smith and 1st Class Carriage Smith in 1921 and qualified as a 1st class farrier before transfer to the reserve on 2 October 1925. Joe's address on being demobbed was in Hounslow.
I am not certain what happened to Joe in later years but a John J Jefferson married in Lewisham in 1927 and was still living in that area after WW2. Coates Jefferson, Joe's elder brother, also lived in the south east after WW1- he married Sarah Smith in Kent in 1917 and settled in St Mary Cray. Younger brother Albert played rugby league for Bradford Northern.
Sources: censuses, birth/marriage/death records and military records which are available on www.ancestry.co.uk and birth/marriage/death records from www.freebmd.org.
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