Current Information:

Age-20

52 Londesborough Road, Stoke Newington

Chauny Communal Cemetery, France

The Battle of the Aisne  13-28 September, 1914

After the Germans were defeated on the Marne they fell back to the River Aisne, closely pursued by both the British and the French. The new German line was a very formidable defensive position. To attack it meant having to cross the Aisne and then climb up a 500 foot high ridge on top of which was the Chemin des Dames, a road that gave the Germans an easy way to move troops along the top of the hills. On 13th September the Aisne was crossed by both British and French troops but after that progress became slower, until there was no progress at all. Both sides dug in and the fighting settled down into trench warfare. The fighting on the Aisne continued for two weeks at the end of which both sides realised that frontal attacks on entrenched positions were both costly and non-productive, not that this deterred them from continuing with this tactic throughout the war. 

At dawn on 20th September, 1914 there was a general attack by the Germans on the Aisne front which drove from their trenches the French troops immediately on the right of the British line and only after some heavy fighting, often hand to hand,  were the enemy finally pushed back to their own lines. The 1st West Yorkshire battalion of 18 Brigade, 6th Division, were on the extreme right of the British line next to the French unit that were driven out of their trenches and they too came under considerable pressure. The 4th Dragoon Guards of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade were ordered forward from Paissy to lend their support and succeeded in stopping the German attack and stabilising the line. The death of John Larkins was recorded as 21st September, 1914, when 4th Dragoon Guards were back in their billets but it is much more likely to have been on the previous day, 20th September