Acting/Sergeant John Charles Dean
39718 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Died of Wounds 3rd November 1918, aged 24
Buried in Giavera British Cemetery, Italy
Burnley Express 16th November 1918

The 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers were part of the 7th Division which was one of five British formations selected to be moved to Italy at the end of 1917. This was a strategic and political move agreed by the British Government at the request of the Allied Supreme War Council, as an effort to stiffen Italian resistance to enemy attack after a recent disaster at Caporetto. Many diaries at this time, by men who had witnessed slaughter in the floods of Passchendaele, talk of the move and Italy as being "like another world". Much work was done preparing to move into the mountainous area of the Brenta, but eventually the Division was instead moved to the line along the River Piave, taking up positions in late January 1918. In October 1918 the Division played a central role in crossing the Piave, the Battle of Vittoria Veneto and the eventual defeat of Austria-Hungary.
The 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers in Italy had far fewer casualties than many Battalions who fought on the Western Front - a total of 63 men died in the battalion in the year the 1RWF spent in Italy - two of these were from Burnley - John Charles Dean and Charles Cranmer