Current Information:

Age-33

16, Ponsard Road, Kensal Green

Ration Farm Military Cemetery, La Chapelle-d'Armentieres, France

Towards the end of July, 1916, 18th Division left the Somme, where they had been heavily involved in the fighting on the first day of the battle there and later at Trones Wood, and moved north to the front line at Erquinghem, near Armentières. On 7th August,1916, 11th Royal Fusiliers of 54 Brigade moved into the front line trenches in the Bois-Grenier sector where they remained until relieved on 15th August. For the first few days here things were generally quiet during the day, allowing the men the chance to improve the trench line, while at night there was a lot of enemy machine gun fire, assisted by searchlights. The artillery was very low key until 13th August when, in response to the British guns registering on their front line, the Germans retaliated with their own artillery and continued to do so for the next two days. It is highly likely that it was this that killed Albert Gale on 14th August.