Name
Joseph Leopold Mann
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/03/1917
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
6987
Honourable Artillery Company
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GOMMECOURT BRITISH CEMETERY NO.2, HEBUTERNE
IV. K. 13.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Edmunds College Memorial, Old Hall Green, We are not aware of any Old Hall Green memorial
Pre War
Recorded as born in Westminster and living in Old Hall Green when he enlisted in Hertford.
Wartime Service
Killed in action in France.
Biography
The following text was transcribed from the The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College:
St. Edmund's has given of its best. The list grows longer, until now more than forty names of our boys are upon the roll of the gallant dead. The news in every case has deepened our grief and pride; yet no wrong, surely, is done to any of that noble company by the statement that, of them all, one, whom few but ourselves have known, holds first place in the minds of the present generation of Edmundians.
Joseph Mann came to the College as a Church Student in September 1910. Tail for his age, taller than his fellows, even ungainly in those early days, he was shy and very sensitive and the give and take of boy life has bitterness for such yet his face shewed a gently dogged determination, with no approach however to obstinacy, and his sense of humour would not infrequently set him laughing. His quiet helplessness when he was amused, is a very sweet memory.
To his work and his duties generally, as to his games, he brought earnestness of character lather than brilliancy; not that he was stupid, not for a moment. But every success which he achieved was the none too lavish reward of strenuous and sustained effort, made, often enough, against adds. School-life was more difficult for him than for many, yet few enjoyed it so much as he.
Of his inner life, dominated, as was also his outward life by the prospect of the Priest-hood, it would be impertinent to speak much; suffice it to say that those who knew hint have drawn inspiration from his example, which will not easily be forgotten.
His school days were drawing to a close, when disappointment overtook him. With a little knot of fellow Edmundians, he left the College for the Army on January 31st, 1916. He received the blow gladly, or rather gaily, though it cost him more perhaps than most. Very soon he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, and after a period of training in England he paid one visit to the College at the time, and looked wistfully at all he loved and was leaving - he went to France.
Of his life there we gather a few hints from letters, his own and his fellow-campaigners. There is good ground for the suspicion that with all his shyness, which persisted even then, he was - as he himself, humbly, realized not at all - something of an Apostle. It seemed as though he had set himself the task of proving what was said to him and his friends of that first Edmundian contingent "You can serve God as well in khaki as in the cassock." Members of his regiment - not intimates, so not even possibly prejudiced - tell how, quite unobtrusively, "He was always ready to do a bit more than his bit." Admirable indeed, and every word of it true.
On March 15th of this year, his platoon was ordered forward to test the strength of the opposing force: the experiment cost them, and us, dear indeed. ‘Joe’ was not among the few that returned to our lines; next day his body was found, and from his position we may reconstruct the picture of his passing. He had been shot in the side, and unable to move forward or back, he lay out there under fire, and fell to reading his prayer book. How long he lay there praying we do not know, but a bullet in the head finished his prayer and his work on earth.
A solemn requiem was sung for him in the College chapel, a requiem unique in our history, for the khaki cap and the cincture of the Church student's cassock lay both of them upon the catafalque.
So he was the first of our boys - still ours - to make the great sacrifice. His parents and his friends " out there" know they have our sympathy, and we know that they share our pride in his noble. service nobly done, and in his example which will give heart to those who follow his life whether here or "out there."
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Di Vanderson, The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College
