Name
Lewis William Gentle
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/05/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
202091
Suffolk Regiment
1/4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DUISANS BRITISH CEMETERY, ETRUN
III. M. 35.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, Church of the Ascension (The Tin Church), Bedmond, Leavesden Asylum/Hospital War Memorial, Leavesden
Pre War
Wartime Service
Biography
Lewis William Gentle was born in 1880 in Bedmond, Abbots Langley - (a twin to his brother Leonard George who died in late 1880) and his family lived at and around Bedmond at various times. His father William Gentle was a Hat Blocker, a skilled trade in the Straw Hat industry. His mother, Anna Maria Gentle worked as a Charwoman, and the couple had five sons and two daughters.
In the 1891 Census the Family consisted of Parents, Albert (born 1870), Horace (born 1872), Ernest (born 1875), Alice L (born 1878), and Louis. A daughter Ethel was born in 1885. Lewis’s father died in 1892 and on the 1901 Census the family (still living in Bedmond) was Anne Maria, a charwoman, Horace, a labourer, Ernest, a Gardener, Lewis, a domestic groom, and Ethel, a domestic servant.
Lewis married Minna Webb in 1908 and by the time of the 1911 Census Lewis was working as a Groom in Bedmond, and living with his wife Minnie and two-year old son , Lewis Albert, at Church Hill in the village. A daughter, Gwendoline Mildred, was born in 1911.
He enlisted at Watford as Private 5508 (probably in early 1916) with the 1/4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment (nominally a Territorial unit which would account for his later numbering as 202091 in the general renumbering of all Territorial soldiers, but not the other numbers attached to his records.).
The War Diary of the 4th Suffolk’s recorded that the battalion was in action in the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe on 23rd to 24th April 1917, and attacked the Hindenburg Line in mid-May and mid-June, but as no Service Records were found it is not known when he was posted to France, or when he was transferred to 2nd Battalion of the Regiment. 2nd Battalion as part of 3 Division was involved in the 3rd Battle of the Scarpe on 3 -4 May 1917 in the Arras Offensive. Lewis was probably wounded on 9 May 1917 in a so-called quiet period between set piece Battles, the battalion was not engaged in a substantial action during this period. Offensive actions progressed to the east of Arras, following the Canadian successes at Vimy Ridge, and it was likely that it was there that Lewis Gentle was wounded.
Although he was likely to have been evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station he died of his wounds on 11 May 1917.
He was buried at Duisans British Cemetery at Etrun, behind the lines, to the west of Arras. Duisans was the site of several Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS). These were collection and treatment points on the evacuation route back to the big Base Hospitals on the French coast. Many men, that were wounded at the Front gradually made it back to Duisans and Etrun, but then died from their wounds at the CCS, and were buried in the Cemetery.
His name first appeared in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in June 1916, but his Unit was not listed. However by August 1916 he was recorded serving with the Suffolk Regiment. Lewis Gentle was mentioned in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine in June 1917: “On May 11th Lewis William Gentle, a Bedmond man, died of wounds received two days previously, from the effects of which he never recovered consciousness. He leaves a wife and two little children to mourn his loss. This brave man was well known to most of us, who feel the deepest sympathy for his sorrowing relatives”. In the same month the Leavesden Parish Records noted that: “Lewis Gentle, a Kitchenman at Leavesden Asylum, had died of wounds”.
Lewis’ second cousin Arthur Gentle was killed in action in August 1916, on the Somme, whilst his cousin, Harry Gentle, also served ,but survived the War.
Lewis Gentle was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial. He was also commemorated on the War Memorial at the Church of the Ascension at Bedmond and Leavesden Asylum/Hospital War Memorial.
Additional Information
War Gratuity £3 and arrears of £2 8s 4d was paid to his widow.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
