Current Information:

Age-20

56, Burgoyne Road, Harringay

Born Esher

London Rifle Brigade Cemetery, Belgium

On 7th January, 1915, the 5th London battalion of 11 Brigade of 4th Division took over a new line from the River Warnave to the Estaminet trench, near Ploegsteert, where they remained for the rest of the month and through into February with companies rotating between the front and support lines and billets in reserve. The battalion diary recorded little about this period so there is no information concerning the death of John Gardiner who was killed on 16th February. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.