245935 Francis John "Jack" Kimmer British Army 1st/4th Btn. Yorkshire Regiment from:Aston Tirrold, Berkshire (d.6 Nov 1918) Francis Jack Kimmer, known as "Jack", was born in Hound Green in Hampshire in 1899. The son of Thomas Kimmer and his wife Louisa. By 1911 the family had moved to Aston Tirrold in Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire) where his father Thomas was the coachman for the Cross family who lived in The Manor, Aston Tirrold. The Kimmer family lived in the Coach House behind the Manor. Jack went to the local school there.
Jack joined up when he turned 18 in 1917. He initially joined up into the Berkshire Regiment (service number 71348). He was later transferred into the 1st/4th Yorkshire Regiment (service number 35576). In May 1918 he was fighting with his Regiment near Aisne is France and was captured by the Germans on 27th May 1918 along with several others. He was taken back to Germany and imprisoned in one of the many POW camps near Kassel, Germany. Here he remained right through 1918. He contracted dysentery in what were described as pretty brutal and barbaric conditions inside these camps. It is not known precisely which camp he was in.
He was moved to a hospital unit near Niederzwehen where he died on 6 November 1918, just 5 days before the end of the war. He is buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel. He was 19. His parents later moved to Silchester Hall Lodge, Mortimer Berks. His tomb inscription reads very simply RIP.
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