Derwent John Bavage was born in 1892 in Farringdon, the son of Charles and Harriet Bavage. In 1901, they were living near the Royal Oak in Lower Farringdon where Charles was a gardener and two of Derwent’s older brothers were grooms.

Derwent enlisted at Aldershot into the Hampshire Regiment as 10486 Private Bavage and was then transferred to 102nd Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry).

13674 Corporal Bavage died on 29th August 1917, aged 26, when the Corps was involved in fighting at Hargicourt in the Aisne region of France. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. 

At this time, his parents were at 2 Kathleen Place, Farringdon. Corporal Derwent John Bavage is buried in Hargicourt British Cemetery, Aisne, France - Grave I.C.23.

Source: “The Remembered Ones of the Great War”, 2014, The Alton and Villages Local History Forum (with permission)