G/12744 Pte John Huxstep of the 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment, was killed in action on the 2nd September 1916. Nineteen pages of his service record survive as a burnt document in the WO 363 series at the National Archives, and the following information comes from this.
John attested under the Derby Scheme on the 11th December 1915. He was 33 years and 10 months old and was living at 2 Perrius Cottages, Wouldham, Kent. He gave his trade as "Labourer". He was unmarried and his mother, Sarah Huxstep, is recorded on his papers as his next of kin and living at the same address. In time she would acknowledge receipt of her son's medals and memorial plaque at Perrins Cottages.
John was called up at Maidstone on 23rd April 1916 and issued with the number G/12744. He was posted to the 9th (Service) Battalion the following day and on 22nd June 1916, less than two months after he had been called up, he was shouldering a pack in France. He was immediately posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment and two days later sent to the No 5 Infantry Base Depot in France. On the 9th July 1916 was posted to the 22nd Manchester Regiment and it was whilst he was with this battalion that he was killed in action.
It is interesting that his service records indicates that John Huxstep was "posted" to the Manchester Regiment and yet his medal index card and the information on Soldiers Died in The Great War and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission indicate his regiment as the Royal West Kent, and his number as a Royal West Kent Regiment number. This being the case, and despite what the service record says, it seems more likely that he had been attached to the RWK Regiment rather than actually being transferred.
John Huxstep has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France. His brother George Arthur Huxstep was also killed in action during the First World War. He died on 7th January 1917 and is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery. Both men are commemorated on memorial plaques located in the Lych Gate of the parish church of All Saints in Wouldham, near Rochester in Kent. Two other brothers and a sister were certainly still living in 1919.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, WO 363 Service Record)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Photographs of the Lych Gate at All Saints Church, and details of Wouldham's fallen appear on the Kent Fallen website. I've taken the image on this post from that site.
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