Current Information:

Born-Watford

Enlisted-Hastings

Rue-du-Bacquerot (13th London) Graveyard, Laventie, France

On 29th March, 1915, the 2nd Bedfordshire battalion of 21 Brigade, 7th Division moved into trenches near Fauquissart where they remained until relieved two days later. The battalion diary provides no information about this period spent in the front line so the circumstances of the death of John East who died from wounds on 31st March, are not known. 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.