Second Lieutenant Wilfred Ernest Flint

Army Number: n/a (formerly Private 4825 Leicestershire Regiment)

Battalion: 1/7th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment.

Born at Leicestershire. Son of Samuel Flint, J.P., and Lillah Anna Flint, of Merridale, Stoneygate, Leicester. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. He was commissioned from the Inns of Court OTC to the 1/7th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment on 15th September 1915. He went to France on 8th May 1916 and joined B Company 1/7th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment. 14th May 1916 at Calais, France. He was wounded on 29th June 1916 and killed in action, on 1st July 1916, aged 18, during the attack on Gommecourt, France, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Extract from 1/7th Battalion War Diary, 12th March 1917 – “The bodies of 2nd Lieutenant W.E. Flint and 2nd Lieutenant Gamble who were killed in action on July 1st were brought in from the wire in front of Gommecourt and buried in Fonquevillers Cemetery by the Reverend W.A. Uthwaite, Chaplain to the Battalion.”

Buried: Foncquevillers Military Cemetery, France. Plot 3, Row E, Grave 5.

Second Lieutenant Flint is also commemorated on the following local memorials:-
Wyggeston Boys Grammar School War Memorial, Leicester.