JOHN L. MAYER, MAJ, USMC
John Mayer '13
John Lyne Mayer, "Johnny," was from York, Pennsylvania and is listed on the "Casualties" page of the 1913 Lucky Bag. He resigned June 12, 1912. He was "deficient at annual examination;" he stood 145th in his class of 146.
Loss
John was lost on April 4, 1919 when he was killed while leading a patrol against Haitian revolutionaries.
Photographs
Photo from Recruiters Bulletin, April 1919; found by Kathy Franz.
Loss
John was killed in action with Haitian insurgents on April 4, 1919.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In January 1902, John attended Rumsey Preparatory school in Seneca Falls, New York.
After his father died in 1904, John, his mother and sister went to live in San Francisco. She died in December 1910.
In September 1906 and 1907, John attended St. Luke’s school in Wayne, Pennsylvania. In December 1907, he and other teens from York arranged a series of paper chases on horseback.
John was appointed to the Naval Academy by Congressman D. F. Lafean in December 1908. John attended Annapolis Preparatory school in early 1909.
In April 1914 John was acting first lieutenant of the 11th company, Third regiment, U. S. Marines. He sailed from Philadelphia on the transport Morro Castle for Mexican waters.
In March 1918 he was commander of the Fifty-seventh Company, First Provisional Brigade, U. S. Marine corps, stationed at Port-Au-Prince, Republic of Haiti. He sailed from Haiti to New York City in early March.
His father Charles was treasurer of the York Street Railways company; his mother was Isabel (Schall.)
From Find A Grave:
A son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Mayer of York, Pennsylvania, John Lyne Mayor attended Saint Luke's College, near Philadelphia, Pa, and then received an appointment to the US Naval Academy where he was a Midshipman from July 1, 1909, until his resignation on June 12, 1912, as a non-graduating member of the Class of 1913.
Commissioned as a 2ndLt, United States Marine Corps, to rank from 10 December 1912, Mayer attended the precursor of today's "TBS" at Norfolk, Virginia, prior to serving at Guantanamo as a student officer under Captain "Hiking Hiram" Bearss of Samar fame.
Mayer's subsequent service included three years aboard the battleship USS South Carolina.
The officer then served in Haiti during World War I.
In October 1916 Mayer was promoted to the rank of 1stLt USMC to rank from 29 August 1916.
In June, 1917, he was advanced to the rank of Captain, USMC, to rank from 29 August 1916, the same date of seniority in rank as his previous promotion.
Highly regarded within the Corps, Captain Mayer gave up the command of his company in October 1918, having been authorized by the Secretary of the Navy to assume the rank and to wear the insignia of a Major (Temporary rank), USMC, as of September 13, 1918.
On April 4, 1919, while in command of US Marines and members of the Haitian Gendarmerie, Major John Lyne Mayer was killed in action during a skirmish against the insurrectionary Haitian "Caco" forces about 5 miles north east of Mirebalais.
The actual cause of his death was a "rifle bullet wound." According to the Marine Corps after action report, the Major's death came "instantly."
News of the Major's death was given little place in the North American press and the funeral service at St John's Episcopal Church of York, Pennsylvania, was a modest affair on April 15, 1919.
He was survived by his sister, Julia, who was at the time a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Memorial Hall
John is the only alumni listed on the killed in action panel at the front of Memorial Hall under the heading "Haiti 1919."
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1914
January 1915
January 1917
March 1918
January 1919
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
