Gordon Manning Kirchin

WWI Roll of Honour

By Lynette Wray

Gordon Manning Kirchin

Military History:        

Regiment:                               Royal Field Artillery

Rank:                                      Driver

Service Number:                    88559

Date of Enlisting:                   1.1.1915

Date of death:                        25.2.1985

Cemetery/ Memorial:            Not known

UK Cemetery/Memorial:       St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour

Gordon enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery, Regimental Number 88559, on 1st January 1915.  He was sent to the Western Front, France and Flanders, in September 1915 with the 85th Army Brigade which was a Howitzer brigade.  This Battalion later in the War also fought in Macedonia in the Balkan Theatre of War.   Gordon survived the War and died at Goring-on-Thames on 25th February 1985.

Gordon was awarded the 15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

Family History:

Date of Birth:                2.5.1898

Birth Place:                   Ashwell, Hertfordshire

Residence:                    Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

Marriage:                      28.7.1932

Gordon was the third son of Arthur and Harriet Elizabeth (nee Topham) Kirchin, born in Ashwell, Hertfordshire on 2nd May 1898.  He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

Gordon married Dorothy Elizabeth Hutchings on 28th July 1932.  Their daughter Janet E was born in 1935. It is not known if they had other children.

Arthur died at Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 24th February 1985.  He was a house painter and decorator.

Gordon’s brother Maurice Owen also served in the War and survived.

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