Private 220080, John Olieff, serving with the 2nd Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire Regiment) was killed in action at the Battle of Langemarke, the second allied general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres, on 16th August 1917, aged 26.

He was born in Thame in 1891, the youngest of the four children of John and Elizabeth Olieff.  By 1911, and living at 5 Southern Road, he had followed into his father’s occupation as a fellmonger, dealing with hides and skins.

He was enlisted into the 2/4th Territorial Force battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, service number 204116, probably towards the end of 1915.  He then transferred to the Royal Berks, and was one of the 378 casualties (killed, wounded, or missing) suffered by the battalion on the 16th August 1917.

John has no known grave, and is commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, near Ypres, Belgium.   In his will, he left over £400.   Private John Olieff is remembered in Thame on the war memorial, and on the All Saints memorial board.