Lieutenant Laurence Arthur Bernard

Army Number : n/a

Battalion : 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment.

Born 27th August 1886 at Copdock, Ipswich, Suffolk. Son of Arthur Montague and Katherine Mary Bernard, of Copdock. He was educated at Bradfield College, Berkshire and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He enlisted on 29th August 1906 as a Second Lieutenant and joined the Sherwood Foresters and was stationed at Bangalore, India till 1909. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 19th March 1909. During the following four years, he was seconded for service with the South Nigeria Regiment W. A. F. F. (West African Field Force) with which he served in the Expeditions at Munshi, Agoni and Somkwala. At the outbreak of war, he went to France on 11th September 1914 and was killed in action, 20th September 1914, aged 28, near Troyon, France, while leading his men to recapture trenches taken by the Germans in the First Battle of the Aisne.

Buried: Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, France. Plot 6. Row C. Grave 2.

Lieutenant Laurence Arthur Bernard is also commemorated on the following local memorials :-
St. Peter’s Church War Memorial, Copdock, Ipswich, Suffolk.