Name
Geoffrey Victor Randall
16/06/1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/07/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Flying Corps
4th Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, Arras, France, to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial, Christ Church (formerly Holy Trinity Church) Memorial Waltham Cross
Pre War
Geoffrey Victor Randall was born in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, on 16th June 1897, son of William Bince Randall an, Engineer Manager at the Local Gas Works and Caroline Elizabeth Randall (nee Randall), the youngest of six children.
1901 Census records Geoffrey aged 3, living with his parents, brothers Harold (12) and Cecil (6) at, The Limes, Crossbrook Street, Cheshunt, Herts.
1911 Census records Geoffrey aged 13, a school boy, boarding at New Collage, Hern Bay, Kent. His mother Caroline died later that year on 6th July, aged 51.
Wartime Service
Geoffrey enlisted at London on 30th November 1914, giving his age as 19 years and his date of birth as 16th June 1895, (this was incorrect he was only 17 years old, and his birth year should have been 1897).
Posted to the Royal Marine Light Infantry (Chatham Division) with the service number 567 (S). He was discharged on 10th April 1915, to the Royal Military Collage Sandhurst for Officer Training, he was Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant to the East Lancashire Regiment.
He obtained his Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 1917, on 13th October 1915, at the Military School, Farnborough, Hampshire , while flying a Maurice Farman Biplane.
He was posted to France, joining No.4 Squadron in the field on 18th March 1916. He was reported missing, Killed in Action on 20th July 1916, while flying a B.E.2c. Aircraft. He has no known grave he is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, Arras, France, to the missing.
An inscription on a headstone in Cheshunt Burial Ground (below) indicates that he was originally buried, however as he is commemorated on the Arras Flying Service Memorial, if that is true then his grave was lost.
Additional Information
His effects of £24-19s-04d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £35, went to his father William Bince Randall.
His service record for the Royal Marine Light Infantry and the Royal Flying Corps are available on-line.
Geoffrey is also commemorated on a family headstone in Cheshunt Burial Ground. His inscription reads:
Also in ever loving memory of
GEOFFREY VICTOR YOUNGEST SON OF W. B. AND C. E. RANDALL, [2ND. LIEUT. EAST LANCS REGIMENT. ATTACHED ROYAL FLYING CORPS] AGED 19 YEARS. KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE JULY 20TH 1918 AND BURIED ON THE FIELD WHERE HE FELL.
“GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS. THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.”
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
