John Smith Freer was born about 1890, the fifth of eight known children born to  John Freer, a worker in the shoe trade, and Jane Eagle.

Though the military memorial shows only "J Freer", the pot next to the memorial confirms that this is John Smith Freer.

No military records seem to have survived, just the bare information that he enlisted at Huddersfield in Yorkshire, joining the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.