Name
Oswald Gentle (MM)
20 November 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/10/1917
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
10190
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
'A' Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 48 to 50 and 162A.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock
Pre War
Oswald Gentle was born on 20 November 1893 in Baldock, Herts, the son of George and Elizabeth Gentle and one of eleven children, although two died in infancy. He was baptised on 6 May 1894 in Baldock.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Norton End, Baldock, where his father was working as a platelayer for the Great Northern Railway. By 1911 they had moved to Icknield Way, Baldock, at which time, Oswald was working as a bricklayer's labourer.
Wartime Service
Oswald was already a serving soldier at the outbreak of war and his regimental number suggests he enlisted in early 1913. He served in France from 16 August 1914 with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He was wounded in the ankle in 1916 and repatriated to England, returning to France in November 1916. At some point he was promoted to Sergeant and was awarded the Military Medal in 1916 for bravery in the field (circumstances unknown).
Oswald was killed in action on 4 October 1917 during the Battle of Broodseinde (Third Battle of Ypres). He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
After his death Sergeant S. Bird wrote to his parents:
"He was one of my best chums, and I am very sorry indeed for you in your great loss. I left him with some stretcher-bearers to be buried. He was liked by all who knew him, and the whole of the regiment are very sorry for you."
The newspaper reporting his death gave his parent's address as Bygrave Lane, Baldock.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £21 10s and pay owing totalling £7 19s 0d. Pension cards exist with his father as dependant but no amount is recorded.
Brother to George Gentle who served with the Royal Engineers, 117th Railway Company but died of malaria in Salonika in 1915.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson
