Basil Ronald Leslie Gardner




BRL Gardner's memorial plaque in High Wycombe Cemetery

West Wycombe(picture from SWOP website)

Basil Ronald Leslie Gardner






Basil Ronald Leslie Gardner 1894-1917

Hello, my name is Basil Ronald Leslie Gardner. I was born in 1895 to George Wyatt Gardner and Caroline Marjorie Mealing. My father came from Oxfordshire but my mother was a Wycombe girl. We lived along the West Wycombe Road in the parish of West Wycombe and my father was an ironmonger. I also had an older brother, Coninsby. In 1910 my mother passed away, which hurt me and my family a lot.

Both Coninsby and I went to school at the Royal Grammar School. I then got a job as an apprentice in a motor cycle works in Coventry, and it was in Coventry that I enlisted to join the Motor Cycle Section in 1915. Later I became Private 206105 of the Machine Guns Corps, D Battalion. My brother was also eager to join up. Coninsby became Sergeant 6739 with the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers and was wounded in 1915 but survived. In October 1916 I went to France and saw considerable active service.

I was sent out to the front line and in 1917 I was Gunner 32210, and merged into the heavy branch of the Machine Gun Corps, the corps which saw the first tanks used in the Battle of the Somme. On 5th April 1917 my father died. I had just written home to tell my family that I wouldn't be able to attend the funeral due to my military duties when the Corps was involved in an engagement on the 11th - the day I went missing and the day my father was buried in High Wycombe Cemetery. My letter actually arrived at home bearing the field stamp of the 12th - the day after I had been killed. My family had no knowledge of my death at this time, I was simply reported as missing in action and they spent the next year trying to find out where I was and what might have happened to me. It was not until October 1918 that they recived official notification from a Captain Phillips that I must have been killed on 11th April 1917.

The letter said "The Army Council have been regretfully constrained to conclude that he is dead, and that his death took place on 11th April 1917. By his Majesty's command I am to forward the enclosed message of sympathy from their gracious Majesties the King and Queen. I am at the same time to express the regret of the Army Council at the soldier's death in his country's service."

I am remembered on the Arras Memorial at Pas de Calais, France and am also remembered on the family grave in High Wycombe Cemetery and on the Royal Grammar School memorial.



Researched by Liam, John Hampden Grammar School and Sally Scagell, Lost the Plot

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