Current Information:

Born-St Pancras

The Great Retreat

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. Roland Brown died from wounds on 2nd September, 1914. He was serving in the 1st East Surrey battalion of 14 Brigade, 5th Division which had seen action at both Mons an Le Cateau

The Cavalry, including the 1st 5th Lancers of 3 Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, along with the rest of the BEF, were part of this retreat and by 3rd September, 1914 they were south of the River Marne. According to the records, Frederick Bentley was killed on this day but the unit diary makes no mention of any fighting or casualties on 3rd September. He has no known grave and this suggests that he was killed on an earlier date but that his death was not recorded until later.