Other Information:Gordon enlisted on 23rd October 1915. He was 19 years and 11 months old; was a Market Gardener by trade; and was living at Oxford Farm, Percy Road, Twickenham, Middlesex at the time. He joined at Richmond and was then posted to "T" Coy on the 16th. He was transferred to serve with the 134th Field Ambulance on the 28th. On 6th March 1916, he embarked at Southampton, then disembarking the next day at Havre he entered the war in France on 7th March 1916. Gordon was admitted into his unit on 17th April suffering with trench fever. He was transferred to the II Corps rest station and returned to his unit for duty on 18th August. On 3rd September, during the Battle of the Somme, the 39th Division became involved in the Fighting on the Ancre. The A.D.M.S. wrote “The position occupied by our troops was one from which it was most difficult to evacuate owing to the ground being exposed and the line of evacuation a lengthy one. The entrenchments were dominated on three sides, the Aid Posts small and inadequate and exposed to shell and machine-gun fire. Added to this I am informed by officers commanding bearers and others that enemy snipers were most active, picking off our bearers when collecting, and wounding again the patients being carried on stretchers. Super-added to which were weather conditions which turned the frontal surroundings, roads and pathways into a boggy state.” The R.A.M.C. casualties were 7 O.R’s killed and 5 officers and 76 O.R’s wounded. Gordon was one of the 7 killed. He was the son of John James and Mary Elizabeth May Mitchell of the same address as above.
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