The monumental inscriptions on the graves at Hyde Park Cemetery include over a dozen commemorating men who fought and died in the Battle of the Somme one hundred years ago. It may come as a surprise, however, that only one such inscription makes an explicit reference to the Somme. It is on a Johnson family grave in Section L. As well as recording the names of several family members who are buried in the grave, it also commemorates Corporal H.F.Johnson of the York & Lancaster Regiment, who died on the first day of the battle, 1st July 1916. Corporal Johnson is laid to rest with many of his comrades in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Authuille, just north of Albert, on the Somme. Corporal Johnson was the son of Thomas and Sarah Jane Johnson, of Doncaster and husband of Alice Peake (formerly Johnson), of 39, Rowan St., Leicester.
