Current Information:

Born-St Pancras

Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture, France

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.

During October, 1914, the  squadrons 15th Hussars were assigned to different divisions, A Squadron were with 1st Division, B Squadron with 2nd Division and C Squadron were attached to 3rd Division and the records do not show  which of these squadrons William Gardner, who was killed in action on 13th October, belonged to. The liklihood is that it was C Squadron as 3rd Division were then engaged in the Battle of La Bassee and were in action near Vieille-Chapelle, where he is buried.