Lieutenant Norman Arthur MEEKING
B Company, 1/9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles)

Date of birth: 26th May 1892
Date of death: 1st July 1916

Killed in action aged 24
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Face 9C
He was born at "Landshire", 39 South Park, Hill Road, Croydon on the 26th of May 1892 the son of Thomas Arthur Meeking, tea merchant, and Gertrude Mary (nee Steains) of 117 Casrellain Mansions, Maida Vale, later of "Rocheford", King Edward Road in New Barnet. He was christened at Croydon on the 17th of June 1892.

He was educated at the Junior King's School from January 1904 and at the King's School Canterbury from April to December 1906. On the 28th of November 1907 he was apprenticed for seven years to Frank Hamilton Townend, a pewterer in London, although he did not complete his apprenticeship, instead he went to work as a clerk in the London office of Entre Rios Railways Company Ltd at River Plate House, Finsbury Circus in London.

Following the outbreak of war he enlisted at Lambeth as Ordinary Seaman LZ/24 in the Royal Navy on the 1st of September 1914. At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was five feet ten and one half inches tall and that he had brown hair and grey eyes. He was posted to the Nelson Battalion, Royal Naval Division on the 22nd of October as Ordinary Seaman K/860. He applied for a commission in the 2/9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles) on the 16th of February 1915 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the battalion on the 1st of March 1915. He was posted to the 1/9th Battalion of his regiment and embarked for France on the 10th of July 1915 where he joined them in the field at Voormezeele, along with nine other officers, on the 14th of July where they were constructing communication trenches. He was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant on the 24th of March 1916.

On the morning 1st of July 1916 the 1/9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles) was involved in the diversionary attack on the village of Gommecourt. Norman Meeking was part of a group made up of different battalions of the Regiment who managed to gain entry to the German front line trench. By 7pm, after many hours of continuous fighting, about seventy survivors were compressed into a short stretch of Fen and Ferrett trenches. By 8.20pm, despite sending runners for assistance, the group had been eroded to around thirty men who were under severe pressure from the now counterattacking German 55th Reserve Infantry Regiment. At dusk the Germans overran the small group of defenders who remained and the survivors were taken prisoner. The wounded were left dying in the trenches or in the dugouts where they had been carried by their comrades. Norman Meeking was wounded in the stomach during the fighting and was carried to a captured dugout where he died of his wounds.

Two eyewitness statements were gathered to investigate what had happened to him: -

Statement of Private 2647 Walter G. Gane 6 Platoon, B Company, 1/9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles) taken by the International Red Cross at the prisoner of war camp, Langensalza on the 27th of December 1916: -

"Was taken into the same German dugout as myself wounded in stomach. Have since heard this brave officer died from his wounds."

Statement of Private 3084 G.H. Nicholls C Company, 1/9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles) taken by the International Red Cross at the prisoner of war camp, Langensalza on the 4th of January 1917: -

"Last seen in German dugout badly wounded."

He was promoted to Lieutenant after his death on the 31st of March 1917, which was effective from the 1st of June 1916.
 

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