Current Information:

Born-Brentwood

Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery, La Gorgue, France

6th London (The “Cast Iron Sixth) arrived in France in March 1915 as part of 4 Brigade, 2nd London Division, soon to be renamed 140 Brigade, 47th Division. On 19th April they went into the trenches for the first time at Givenchy and on 4th May they took over the line facing Festubert. They were out of the line when the Battle of Festubert began on 15th May, 1915 but on the next day they moved up to a line of support trenches where they remained for four days providing working parties, mainly building breastworks near the shell swept Willow Road to form a defensive flank. They suffered many casualties here, doing this dangerous work and it was almost a sense of relief when they moved into the front line on 20th May, 1915. They remained in the front line here for ten days taking an active if stationary role in the battle. The enemy kept up a heavy bombardment of their trenches. Breastworks were destroyed by high explosive shells, shrapnel targeted the broken parapets and not surprisingly the casualty list rose.

Rifleman Rush died of wounds on 22nd May,1915 and he was likely to have been one of the many wounded during this period in the line.