Current Information:

Age-33

70, Etherley Road, South Tottenham

61, Kimberley Gardens, Harringay

After the opening battles of the war at Mons on 23rd August, 1914 and Le Cateau on 26th August, the British Army (BEF), in conjunction with the French Army, began a retreat that took them all the way back to the River Marne, 200 miles to the south. With the Germans in hot pursuit they were forced to fight a series of rear guard actions as they fell back in extremely hot weather. The Great Retreat, as it became known, came to an end on 5th September, 1914 when the allied forces attacked along the River Marne and drove the Germans back to the River Aisne.

At the end of the retreat, the 4th Royal Fusiliers battalion of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division, finished up at Châtres, to the south-east of Paris and on the next day moved forward to Lumigny. On 7th September they advanced again and reached La Martroy that evening. The battalion diary makes no mention of being in any action nor of any casualties on 7th September so there is no explanation as to the death of Thomas Redfern on that day. He has no known grave but is commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the missing so it is possible that he was killed on an earlier date and that his death was not recorded until later.