Captain, 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment. (Is how he is commemorated on the war memorial), the closest trace for this officer is - Captain William Frank Gardiner BAIRD. 4TH Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment attached Lincolnshire Regiment. Formerly served in the 7th Dragoon Guards. Died 5th November 1914. Son of Sir William Baird Bt and the Honourable Lady Baird of Saughton Hall, Midlothian. Husband of Violet Mary Baird of Wareside, Ware, Hertfordshire. Buried Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. Grave II.B.5.

Private G/8706, 6th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Died 3rd July 1916. Born Benenden. Enlisted Cranbrook. Resided Benenden. Son of William and Laura Emily Marshall of Iden Green, Benenden, Cranbrook, Kent. Buried Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuile, Somme, France. Grave reference II.D.3.

Private 24314, 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Died 16th August 1918. Born Benenden. Enlisted Cranbrook. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

Private 24313, 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Died 20th August 1916 aged 33 years. Born Benenden. Enlisted Cranbrook. Son of Mary Matthews of Moorwood, Benenden, Kent. Husband of Agnes Kate Matthews of 4 School Road, Faversham, Kent. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

Corporal G/13669, 6th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Died 3rd May 1917. Born, Enlisted & Resided Benenden. Son of Frank and Fanny Moore of 1 Hague Cottage, Iden Green, Benenden, Cranbrook, Kent. Buried Arras Road Cemetery, Roclincourt, Pas de Calais, France. Grave reference II.N.39.

Private T/203563, 6th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Formerly 5th Battalion. Died 31st November 1917. Born and resided Benenden. Enlisted Tenterden. Son of George and Alice Weeks of Catsford Farm, Benenden, Kent. Buried Villers-Guislain Communal Cemetery, Nord, France. Grave reference A. 4.

Lieutenant Commander (A), “H.M.S. Vulture,” Royal Naval Air Station, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (R.N.V.R). Died 21st November 1940 aged 37 years. Born 26 January 1903, Bromley, Kent. Son of Henry Bevington Legge and Edith Blythne Legge. Husband of Rosemary Kathleen Legge of Cranbrook, Kent. Played cricket for England, Kent, Oxford University; right-hand bat; legbreak bowler. Educated at Malvern School and Oxford University. Buried St Merryn Churchyard, Cornwall. Grave reference 1.

Geoffrey Legge as a cricketer, businessman, racing-car enthusiast and pioneer aviator, who became the first English Test player to die in the Second World War.

Extract from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack:

Lt. Geoffrey Bevington Legge, Fleet Air Arm, suffered death while flying in November, aged 37. Legge played little first-class cricket since 1930, when he resigned the Kent captaincy. After batting up to the high form associated with Malvern School, where he was captain, particularly in off-driving and cutting, Legge gained his Oxford Blue in 1925 and captained the University XI next season. Each year he headed the batting averages, and scored 83 in four innings, against Cambridge, the first of two good matches ending in a draw and Oxford losing the other by 34 runs. In this 1926 match R. G. H. Lowe did the fifth hat-trick, all by Cambridge bowlers, in the University match. In 1928 he succeeded A. J. Evans as Kent captain, and managed the side so well in the field that Lancashire, winners of the Championship, alone came out with a superior record. He went to South Africa in the winter of 1927, and also toured New Zealand and Australia when A. H. H. Gilligan captained the M.C.C. team in 1929. At Auckland in the specially arranged fourth Test Match, Legge excelled by making 196, the next highest score in a total of 540 being 75 by M. S. Nichols. Legge bowled slows with some success. Usually fielding in the slips, he seldom dropped any catch within reach, and in everything he attempted showed skill at the game. He was in the Malvern football eleven and also represented the School at rackets.

See also Lords Cricket Club World War 2. See also Cricinfo for further details

Photographs Copyright © Alex Legge 2019

Corporal 621301, Royal Air Force (R.A.F). Died 29th November 1943 as a prisoner of war when the Japanese ship he was being transported to Java in, Suez Maru, was sunk by the American ship USS Bonefish. Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, Singapore. Panel reference - Column 426. For more details see Hell Ships - Suez Maru.

Craftsman 6024383, Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (R.E.M.E). Died from polio (Acute Anterior Polyomylitis) 21st August 1944. Aged 25. Born 1919 in Biddenden, Kent. Resided Northamptonshire. Son of Edward Newsham and Florence Eliza Newsham. Resident Benenden, Kent, until his marriage. Married May Broomhead in the July to September Quarter 1943 in Mansfield Registration District, Nottinghmahsire. Originally buried in Trimulgherry, Madras, India. Buried Madras War Cemetery, Chennai, India. Plot 8. Row D. Grave 3.

Photograph Copyright © Frances Lee 2010

Chief Ordnance Artificer C/M 38907, “H.M.S. Tamar”, Royal Navy (R.N). Died 2nd October 1942 aged 38 years. Son of Henry Thomas and Elizabeth Sharp. Husband of Ethel Ann Rosina Sharp of Brighton, Sussex. Commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. Panel 63,2.