Name
Joseph Churchill Jarrett (MM)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/09/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
13486
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial
Biography
Joseph was born in Isleworth in 1891, the son of William Jarrett, a Gardener Domestic and his wife Mary and was one of four sons and two daughters. By the time of the 1911 Census he had moved to Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, where he lived as a Boarder, and followed his father’s trade and worked as a Gardener Domestic. Joseph’s connection with Abbots Langley was through his time working at Cecil Lodge as the Foreman Gardener, but it is unknown exactly when this occurred.
By October 1914 he had enlisted, and gave his address at that time at Caterham, Surrey. He was recorded for the first time in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in the same month, as serving with Kitchener’s Army
By December 1914 Joseph had transferred to the 3rd Bedfordshire’s and a year later had moved on to the 1st Battalion. It is unknown when he moved to France and Flanders, or what action merited the awarding of the Military Medal, or when he was promoted to Corporal. However, by early September 1916 the 1st Bedfordshire’s were in trenches near Billon Farm on the Somme. The trenches were in a dreadful state, and working parties employing several hundred men were engaged in repairing and improving their condition on 1st and 2nd September. The working parties were frequently shelled with gas and tear shells.
Between 3rd and 6th September the 1st Bedfordshire battalion supported an attack on an enemy strongpoint at Falfemont Farm. The attack resulted in heavy losses and 17 of the battalion’s 20 officers, and 289 of 610 Other Ranks were killed, wounded or missing. It was during this engagement that Joseph Jarrett was killed in action.
His death was recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine in January 1917
“News has been received that J.Jarrett of the 2nd Beds (sic), who was formerly Foreman in Cecil Lodge Gardens, has been killed in action, but no particulars have been heard”
Joseph Jarrett was commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme, and also on the Abbots Langley War Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
