Name
John Linge
1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/03/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
518
Queen's Own (Royal West Kent
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GORRE BRITISH AND INDIAN CEMETERY
I. H. 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Berkhamsted memorials, Riverhead Memorial, Sevenoaks, Kent
Pre War
John Linge's birthplace is shown on The Soldiers who died in the Great War record as being Berkhamsted, Herts, however, it has not been possible to trace his family or date of birth.
On the 1911 Census he was a boarder at the home of widow Sarah Tye, her daughter Florence and granddaughter Ivy, at Church Row, Riverhead, Kent. His name was given as Jack and his occupation as Driver (Horse and Van). (He named Sarah as legatee - see additional information below).
He was said to be working as a butcher when he enlisted.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Tonbridge, Kent and joined the 6th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment in September 1914 and was posted to France on 1 June 1915.
On I January 1916 the London Gazette published a despatch received by the Secretary of State for War from the Field Marshall commanding the British Army in France, which named John Linge as having acted with gallant and distinguished service in the field in October 1915.
He received a gun shot wound to his thigh and arm in March 1916 which resulted in him being repatriated to England for treatment at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, between 23 March and 26 May 1916.
Upon recovery he was posted to the 3rd Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment on 21 July 1916 and returned to France, joining the Battalion in the Field with ' B' Company on 29 January 1917.
He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in September 1916.
At some point he was transferred again to the 1st Battalion and in March 1917 the Battalion were stationed at Gorre in the Pas de Calais, France. Battalion diaries for 12 March, when John was killed in action, suggests that he was the single casualty (unamed) hit by a sniper bullet when with a working party.
He is buried in Gorre British and Indian Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His legatee Sarah Lye received a war gratuity of £11 10s and pay owing of £14 2s 4d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.riverheadmemorial.com., www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk
