Current Information:

3, New Square, Quaker Street, Spitalfields

Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France

40th Division, including 20th Middlesex of 121 Brigade, arrived in France in May 1916 and after a period of trench instruction, took over front line duties at Loos, a mining village on the outskirts of Lens where they stayed for the rest of the summer. On 19th September, 1916, 20th Middlesex moved into the front line trenches in the Loos, left sub sector and remained in these positions for the next eight days. The following day, 20th September, the Battalion Diary recorded that twice during the day they had to contend with  rifle grenades being fired at them and that in the evening the enemy opened up a heavy trench mortar bombardment that partially destroyed a communication trench called Gordon Alley. It was this that was the most likely cause of the death of John Jenkins.