Current Information:

Born-Aldershot

Enlisted-London

Kemmel Churchyard, Belgium

The Race to the Sea - September-October 1914

By the middle of September 1914, the Aisne battlefield had stagnated into trench warfare and in order to break this impasse, both sides tried to outflank each other in a general movement northwards. Moving up through Picardy, Artois and Flanders, the race was over by 19th October when the North Sea was reached. The Western Front, a line of trenches stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, was now a reality. Initially it was the French army that conducted this movement whilst the British Expeditionary Force remained on the Aisne but by 6 October British reinforcements were needed to help beat off German attacks around Lille. They moved north and along with reinforcements from Britain, they took up new positions in Flanders, on the left of the Allied line and much closer to the Channel ports.

Francis Dunlop died from wounds on 21st October, 1914 but as yet there is no information as to when and where he was wounded. The 2nd Dragoons were part of 5th Cavalry Brigade,  2nd Cavalry Division that had arrived in Flanders in the middle of October and had been involved in the fighting around Houthem in the days that followed.