Name
Jack French
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
14378
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHILI TRENCH CEMETERY, GAVRELLE
D. 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
His home was with his parents, Mr and Mrs Harry French of 12, Telegraph Place, Hitchin and he was unmarried.
Before joining the army he had worked for the Hitchin Urban District Council. He was born in Hitchin and enlisted there as a volunteer in September 1914.
Wartime Service
Jack was in the 6th Battalion with the Regimental Number 14378. This Battalion was part of the 112th Brigade of the 37th Division in the XVII Corps of the 3rd Army. He was sent to France in August 1915 and fought at Loos and on the Somme where he was wounded on the 1st July 1916. He was invalided home to hospital and after three-months treatment returned to his unit in France in October 1916. He was killed in action at Arras during the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe when he was in charge of a bombing section and a shell exploded in a trench. Serjeant Lawrence of the same platoon wrote "He was killed whilst advancing to push the cruel Hun from his position".
The Battalion was engaged in violent trench warfare east of the Gavrelle to Roeux Road east of Arras. Casualties were heavy. The Battalion was in support of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division.
He was buried in Row D, Grave 11 in the Chili Trench Cemetery in France.
Additional Information
He saw the wounds inflicted on his brother Henry in November 1916.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild