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Rflmn. John George Ansell
British Army 13th Btn. Rifle Brigade
from:Norwood, London
(d.18th April 1917)
Jack Ansell was mortally injured in the assault of Monchy le Preux on Wednesday 11th April 1917. He was transferred from the battlefield to Etaples for treatment.
He was his mother's first child, just 19 years old. She received a message that he was badly injured and travelled to Dover to catch the first available ferry in order to see him. Sadly, the weather was too unfavourable and the ferry was delayed. When she did finally arrive at the field hospital in Etaples he was no longer alive in the ward, he had died on 18th of April. His mother had to identify his body lying outside covered in a tarpaulin, awaiting burial. His grave can now be found in the Etaples cemetery.
The brigade chaplain, Lieutenant Chamberlen's "Account of Arras", written in 1932, records the progress of the 13th Rifle Brigade from 9th to 15th April, during which only 40% of the battalion survived alive or uninjured. Using the trench maps one can trace the route taken by the battalion during this assault.
