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2nd Lieutenant John Crawford Claude PASCO
15th (Service) Battalion Hampshire Regiment (Hampshire Yeomanry) Date of birth: 22nd September 1898 Date of death: 4th September 1918 Killed in action aged 19 Buried at Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 Plot XIV Row H Grave 24
John Crawford Claude Pasco was born at "Fairlight", Elizabeth Bay in Australia on the 22nd of September 1898 the only son of Captain Fredrick Claude Coote Pasco RN and Emily Elizabeth (nee Denne) Pasco of “East Anglia”, Kent Road, Rose Bay, Sydney in New South Wales. Before the war the family lived for a time at “Swallowfield”, Limpsfield in Surrey. He was educated firstly in Australia, but came to England on board the SS "Ascanius", landing at London on the 20th of October 1911. He was educated at Hazelwood School at Limpsfield from October 1911 to July 1912 when, on leaving, the school magazine wrote of him: - "...carries with him to Lancing our best wishes for his success. We keenly regret that his stay at Hazelwood was limited to nine months, and that consequently he failed to win his cricket "colours". Very much at home in the water, he had little difficulty in annexing last term the Senior's Swimming Prize." He went on to Lancing College where he was in Gibbs House from September 1912 to December 1913. He applied for entry to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and underwent a medical examination on the 27th of April 1917 at which it was recorded that he was five feet six and a half inches tall and that he weighed 132lbs. He was posted to Sandhurst the same day and left in April 1918. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment on the 24th of April 1918 and he embarked for service in France on the 21st of August 1918. On the 4th of September 1918 the 15th Battalion Hampshire Regiment was detailed to attack German trenches near Kemmel in the Ypres sector. Orders came through the night before, giving the company commanders very little time to organise, but by 4am the assault force was assembled for the attack behind “Chinese Trench” with their first objective being the light railway to the west of Bois Quarante. The artillery barrage was unsatisfactory as it fell mainly behind and to the east of the enemy positions leaving a number of enemy machine guns unmolested. As a result the men were met by a hail of machine gun and sniper fire causing heavy casualties and although a few men reached the objective they were unable to reach the road beyond which represented their second objective. They were too few to hold on to their gains and following a counterattack by German infantry at 7am the Hampshires were forced to withdraw to a line short of their first objective. The battalion lost 8 officers and 90 men killed or missing in this attack with a further 6 officers and 220 wounded some of which had been gassed. His parents received the following telegram dated the 12th of September 1918: - "Deeply regret 2/Lt. J.C.C. Pasco Hampshire Regt. killed in action September fourth. the Army Council express their sympathy." He was buried to the east of Vandamme Farm, to the east north east of Kemmel, but his body was later exhumed and moved to its present site. His mother applied for his medals in September 1921. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Hazelwood School, on the Australian War Memorial and on the memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

Gibbs House