Jack Frederick Moon, died 21st September 1918, aged 22. Gunner 37933, 65th Siege Battery, RoyalGarrison Artillery
Jack was born in early 1897, the only child of Thomas Moon and his second wife Alice (née Mace). However, his name registered at birth and at the time of his baptism, in Horsmonden on 4th November 1898, was simply Frederick Moon. Census returns for 1901 and 1911, when he was still living with his parents also record him as Frederick or Fred so it would seem that “Jack” may have been a nickname or a name he adopted when he joined the army.
Jack’s father, Thomas, was a son of James Moon, a journeyman miller who worked for the Clemetson family at Hope Mill, Goudhurst. Thomas married firstly Nancy (Annie) Ellen Maynard in 1891; their daughter Nellie (later Ellen) Emma was baptised in Goudhurst on 25th October 1891. At this time the family lived at Crowbourne where Annie Moon died in 1894; she was buried in Goudhurst’s Victorian cemetery in Back Lane. Thomas married Alice Mace at the beginning of 1896.
The 1901 census shows the family of four living at Round Green, Cranbrook, although Thomas, an agricultural labourer, has mistakenly been entered as James Moon. Ten years later they are living in Priors Heath, where Thomas is employed as a waggoner on a farm, and Jack (Fred) as a farm labourer.
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Jack Moon was 17 years old. His medal card records that he was sent to France on 3rd October 1914, suggesting that he signed up as soon as war started. At this date he was part of the 116 Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, transferring to the 65th Siege Battery some time after. Unfortunately, his service record has not survived so it is not possible to pinpoint his movements with any accuracy. In 1917, when he was serving with the 65th Siege Battery, the London Gazette supplement for 16th August includes his name in a long list of men awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.
At the beginning of 1918, Jack married Gladys Rosalind Cheater in Southampton. It was just a few months later in September the same year that he died of wounds at the 2nd Canadian General Hospital in Le Treport. He was buried nearby in Mont Huon Military Cemetery, where his grave reference is VII.G.10B
To cause further confusion over his actual name, his death was registered as John F Moon, Gnr, 37933, RGA by the British Army.
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Horace John Moore, died 29th April 1917, aged 22. Private 24467, 22nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment).
Horace (known as Jack) Moore was born in Goudhurst on 6th December 1894, the son of Horace George and Elizabeth (née Pearce) who had married in Goudhurst the previous April. By 1901 the family were living in Ramsgate and in 1911 in Swalecliffe near Whitstable, where Jack and his father worked for the Public Sewage Works as a pipe-layer and pipe-joiner respectively.
It is not known when Jack joined the army but he probably went abroad in 1916. He was killed in action when four battalions of the Royal Fusiliers attacked the Germans at Oppy Wood, several miles north-east of Arras, three weeks into the Battle of Arras. His body was never subsequently identified, and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing, bay 3.
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