Current Information:

Age-27

SDGW-RAGOM

Born-Willesden

Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium

On 20th June 1916, 13th Middlesex of 73 Brigade, 24^th Division moved into the front line trenches at Spanbroekmolen, near the Messines Ridge in Belgium. This was a long stretch of the front line, one thousand yards long and with a salient, the Bull Ring, at the southern where no-man’s-land was only forty yards in width. During the week they spent here they had to contend with regular bombardments of their positions by the much feared, large trench mortars or Minenwerfers, known to the British as “minnies”. These had destructive powers, able to demolish whole sections of trench and on the evening of 22nd June, 1916  one of these dropped on to a dugout where some of the battalion bombers were sheltering, killing four men one of whom was Gustave Ragon.