Rank: Private 34246 Regiment: 2nd/4th Bn., Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry Died: 12 April 1918 Age: 18 Parish: Otterton Local Memorials: Otterton Memorial Cross Other Memorial: St Venant-Robecq Road British Cemetery, Robecq [Google] PDF Download: MARCHANT William George
William George Marchant was the youngest of the men on the Otterton War Memoria to be killed in the Great War.
He was the son of William Henry Marchant, a waggoner/farm labourer, and his wife Ellen. There were nine children in the family.
George, as he was known, was born at the end of 1899, either in Ottery St Mary or Tipton St John (the 1901 and 1911 census give different details).
He originally served in the Devonshire Regiment, with the service number 70847.
At the time of his death his family were living in Northmostown, which was then within the Otterton parish boundary.
The 2nd/4th Oxford and Bucks were, in April 1918, fighting on the Western Front in the Battle of the Lys, part of a German attempt to force the British back to the Channel ports, and casualties of that battle are among those buried in St Venant-Robecq.
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