Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of John Elliott Colley a baker, born 1855 in Hexham, Northumberland and his wife Annie Robson Colley, born 1864 in County Durham. John was born in 1888 in Blaydon, County, Durham, also residing with the family was his widowed paternal grandfather, John Colley, born 1816 in Belsay, Northumberland, in April 1891 the family home was at Hexham Road, Whickham, Swalwell, County Durham. In March 1901 John was residing in the family home at Front Street, Whickham, Swalwell, County Durham, together with his father, now a baker and confectioner and his mother. In April 1911 John was a pharmaceutical student and was residing in the family home at Front Street, Swalwell, County Durham, together with his widowed father. In the April, May, June quarter of 1914, John married Emily Thorp in the Oakham, Rutland marriage registration district. John was recorded at birth as John Colley, however later references give him the additional Christian names of Hood Ryle, and upon marriage these additional Christian names were recorded in the official registration. Prior to enlistment he was a dispenser at Wellington’s Chemist in Oakham, Rutland. He attested under the Lord Derby Scheme, and initially was with the Royal Engineers Special Gas Brigade, embarking for France in January 1917. In May he was invalided home with a fractured right ankle, being admitted to Netley Hospital in Hampshire and then being transferred to Fareham House. On recovery he again returned to France in October 1917 but with the hardships he had to endure and being under constant shell fire his health began to fail, and after spending time in various hospitals in France he was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps, acting as a dispenser in the hospitals at Cherbourg and Rouen. In May 1919 he was admitted to the Neurasthetical Hospital in London, being discharged in July suffering from hysteria. He was never able to resume work and was passed from one hospital to another in attempts to treat his condition, but he finally died in Burntwood Mental Hospital. An exceedingly nice, genial man, he was liked by all who knew him.