Royal Army Service Corps
David Gardner was born in Gloucester in the first half of 1897.
He was the son of Leonard Gardner who was an interior decorator (and lived from 1860 to 1903) and his wife Kezia (née Royston; 1859-1941), who was a worker in a pin factory.
As far as can be ascertained, the couple had twelve children, of whom five had died by the time of the 1911 census.
In 1901 the Gardner family lived at 8 Vauxhall Terrace, Gloucester. Following the death of her husband (and David’s father) in 1903 Kezia Gardner married Charles Taylor in 1906 in Gloucester. In 1911 David, then aged 13, was living with his mother and step father at 22 Victoria Street, Gloucester.
No Army service record has survived for David Gardner but some details of his service can be gleaned from certain surviving records and also from his funeral report which was published in the Gloucestershire Chronicle of 6 November 1920.
This states that he was ‘one of the first to join up in Gloucester in 1914, aged 17, attached to a local battery of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). The Medal Roll record for the RFA, held at the National Archives, confirms his posting, as a Gunner, to 305 Brigade, with the number 2353. The brigade was originally named 2/1st South Midland Brigade, part of a second line Territorial Force unit, known as 2nd South Midland Division. This was not formed until February 1915 and taking into account David’s allocated number it appears more likely that he joined in early 1915, rather than at the very start of the war. In any case, aged 17 he would not (legally) have been able to serve overseas until reaching the age of 19.
The brigade was originally located in Northampton but moved to Chelmsford in April 1915 following which it became part of 61st Division. The funeral report states that David did not go to France until 1916 and this tallies with the brigade and divisional move to the Western Front on 21 May 1916.
The division was soon involved at Fromelles on 19 July 1916 which proved to be a disastrous diversionary operation designed to draw German troops away from the Somme front further south. Thereafter it participated in operations on the River Ancre (Somme sector) and the German retreat to the Hindeburg Line in early 1917. Later in that year it fought in the Battle of Langemark (one of the many operations as part of the Battle of Third Ypres) and at Cambrai in late November and early December.
In September 1916 there had been a reorganisation of RFA units and 305 Brigade was broken up and its assets distributed elsewhere. How this affected David Gardner is not known.
The funeral report states that whilst serving on the Western Front David contracted an unnamed illness and was sent home. He was treated in various hospitals and retained on home duties until being demobilised in 1919. A recently released Pension Record Card states that he was discharged on 12 May 1919, due to pleurisy. His Medal Roll record states that he transferred to the Army Service Corps (as it was then) on 26 February 1918 and acquired the number R/391294.
On 14 September 1918 David married 21 year old Elsie Marion Smith at St John’s Church, Moulsham, near Chelmsford. Possibly someone he met whilst serving in the area in 1915/16?
Following his discharge from the Army, David’s health (according to the funeral report) was ‘sadly impaired’ and he went back to his job as a storekeeper on the Midland Railway.
Surprisingly, given the circumstances of discharge, there does not appear to be an Army Pension record (or at least one has not survived). The funeral report states that his health steadily declined and he was forced to give up his job in August 1920 and that he finally succumbed to ‘lung trouble’. In the absence of sight of a death certificate it is reasonable to speculate that his underlying condition was in fact pulmonary tuberculosis; very common at the time.
According to a death notice posted in the local newspapers David Gardner died aged 23 on 30 October 1920 at 27 Victoria Street, Gloucester. He was given a semi-military funeral at All Saints Church followed by burial in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave. Following his death his widow returned to the Chelmsford area to live and remarried in April 1925.
Researched by Graham Adams 29 November 2019