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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
L/Cpl. James Francis Clarke
British Army 2nd Btn. Middlesex Regiment
(d.11th Nov 1918)
I am researching the 155 boys of Gordon's Boys Home, Chobham, Woking, Surrey who died in the Great War. The home was for boys of impoverished families to learn a trade and was a natural recruiting ground for the Army. James Francis Clarke was a 15 year old at the school in 1911 learning to be a "Shoemaker". He was born in Farnborough, Hants and his parents are believed to be Thomas and Annie.
He enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment in Woking and given the Regimental Number L/13777. The “L†suffix was given to men who signed on for a "long" period of service and the 13777 indicated that he enlisted in about June or July 1911. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion which at the outbreak of war in August 1914 was serving in Malta. They returned to the UK and became part of 23rd Brigade, 8th Division that landed at Le Havre on the 7th November 1814. His service record did not survive the Blitz of WW2 and it can only be assumed that he served his time with the 2nd Batt.
James Francis was one of the 863 listed by the CWGC who died on the 11th November 1918 - the last day of the war, and is buried 40 miles behind the front line with 6 others that died that day. He is buried in Brebieres British Cemetery which was made in October and November 1918 and contains 85 burials, 29 of which were later re-internments from other Communal Cemeteries or Churchyards. There are no predominant parts of the Army represented in the cemetery which perhaps indicates that the burials are of men wounded elsewhere. He was awarded the 1914 Star & Clasp and the British War and Victory Medals, there is also a note regarding a “Gordon’s Boys Home Medal†all of which was returned to the Surrey Medal Office in 1959. Presumably his next of kin were never found or the medals claimed by his family.
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