2nd Lt
Donald James Beavon
Information about birth
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Date of birth: 16/09/1888 |
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Place of birth: Bow, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom |
General information
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Profession: Clerk Corn Trade |
Army information
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Country: England, United Kingdom |
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Force: British Expeditionary Force |
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Rank: Second Lieutenant |
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Service number: / |
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Units: — Gloucestershire Regiment, 1/4th Bn. (City of Bristol) (Last known unit) |
Information about death
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Date of death: 27/08/1917 |
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Place of death: Keerselare - Springfield Farm, Belgium |
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Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.) |
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Age: 28 |
Memorial
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Tyne Cot Memorial Panel: 72 |
Points of interest 1
| #1 | Place of birth |
My story
Donald James Beavon was born in 1888 in Bow, Middlesex. He was the second son of Alice Maud and Alfred Beavon. His father was a merchant in fancy goods & musical instrument, while Donald worked as a clerk in the corn trade. Early 1914 he married 24-year old Jessie Sarah Metcalfe. At the time of the Battle of Passchendaele Donald had enlisted and served as a Second Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 1/4th Bn. (City of Bristol), part of the 144th Brigade of the 48th (South Midland) Division.
On 22 August 1917 Donald’s Battalion was relieved in the frontline along the Steenbeek stream. And while the 144th Brigade attacked German positions along near the road junction at Keerselare on the 27th the 1/4th Gloucestershires moved to a camp near Poperinge.
On the 27th the 144th Brigade advanced with the 1/7th and 1/8th Worchestershires. The going was tough as the terrain had been shaped into a quagmire. Not much headway could be made and the 1/8th Worcestershires struggled to capture the concrete emplacements at Springfield Farm. Which only fell to the Worcestershires after nightfall.
The 1/7th Worcestershires on the left were held up at Vancouver near the road junction. Machine-gun fire from Vieilles Maisons made any progress neigh to impossible and the Battalion dug in to the west and the north of Vancouver. While the attack was on the way the German artillery heavily shelled the line at the Steenbeek stream and in the neighborhood of Maison du Hibou, where the Headquarters of both Worcestershire Battalions were.
Second Lieutenant Donald James Beavon was killed on 27 August 1917. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
On 22 August 1917 Donald’s Battalion was relieved in the frontline along the Steenbeek stream. And while the 144th Brigade attacked German positions along near the road junction at Keerselare on the 27th the 1/4th Gloucestershires moved to a camp near Poperinge.
On the 27th the 144th Brigade advanced with the 1/7th and 1/8th Worchestershires. The going was tough as the terrain had been shaped into a quagmire. Not much headway could be made and the 1/8th Worcestershires struggled to capture the concrete emplacements at Springfield Farm. Which only fell to the Worcestershires after nightfall.
The 1/7th Worcestershires on the left were held up at Vancouver near the road junction. Machine-gun fire from Vieilles Maisons made any progress neigh to impossible and the Battalion dug in to the west and the north of Vancouver. While the attack was on the way the German artillery heavily shelled the line at the Steenbeek stream and in the neighborhood of Maison du Hibou, where the Headquarters of both Worcestershire Battalions were.
Second Lieutenant Donald James Beavon was killed on 27 August 1917. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
Sources 6
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"Passchendaele. The Day-by-Day Account", McCarthy C., London, Uniform, 2018, pg. 66-67. Sources used |
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Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/ Further reference |
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CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/844476/beavon,-donald-james/ Sources used |
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The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/ Sources used |
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War Diary 144th Bde. http://www.nmarchive.com/ Further reference |
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War Diary Gloucestershire Regiment, 1/4th Bn. (City of Bristol) http://www.nmarchive.com/ Further reference |