Jesse Andrew Ward

Born: 7 February 1899

Died: 4 October 1917

Rank and Regiment: Private G/48598 in the 13th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers

Resting Place: Zantvoorde British Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium - Grave III. D. 23

Memorials: St. Margaret’s, Garvestone, United Kingdom

Jesse Ward was born in Dereham in 1899 – he appears to have been born on 7 February 1899 and baptised at Dereham on 6 July 1899. John Ward was stated as his father – but in the 1901 Census the two year old “Jessie” is recorded living at 16 Adcocks Yard, Dereham, with his grandparents Charles and Kate Ward. Living with them is their daughter Lucy, a domestic servant and single, and John, aged 4, Jesse’s older brother.

In the 1911 Census for Mattishall we find Lucy living as a servant in the household of Henry Ebbage, widower, together with her sons John and Jesse.

Jesse Ward’s enlistment papers do not survive. All that we know is that he was killed on 4 October 1917, presumably at the start of the Battle of Broodseinde. This was fought near Ypres in Belgium, and was the most successful Allied attack of the “Third Battle of Ypres”, the offensive which, as autumn rain turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, was to become better known as Passchendaele.

It appears that he was resident in Garvestone before joining up.

He is now buried in Zantvoorde British Cemetery, in West Flanders, Belgium (Grave III. D. 23); he was reburied there in February 1920, being identified by his identity disc.

The inscription on his gravestone reads

HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP

He is listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as “Son of Lucy E. Ward, of Whinburgh Rd., Westfield, East Dereham” but there is no indication that Jesse himself had any connection with Westfield. His effects amounting to £2 3s 11d were paid out to his mother.

Zantvoorde British Cemetery, Belgium