Current Information:

Age-18

18 Rookstone Road, Tooting

London Rifle Brigade Cemetery, Belgium

12th East Surrey arrived in France in May 1916 and joined 122 Brigade 41st Division. At the end of the month and after a period of trench instruction, they took over part of the line near Ploegsteert Wood, just north of Armentières and throughout June they did seven day spells in these trenches with seven days in reserve at Soyer Farm. On 17th June they were relieved from one of these spells in the front line and moved back to billets in Soyer Farm where for the next week they supplied working parties for the Royal Engineers. The Battalion Diary makes no mention of any casualties but the records show that two men, one of them being Frederick Russell, were killed in action on 19th June, 1916, and presumably they were killed whilst engaged on one of these working parties, which were often easy targets for the enemy artillery or snipers.