Best, FG
(1897 - 1916)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
4th September 1897
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1910 - 1913
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Ambleside, Westmoreland Road, South Hill, Bromley
REGIMENT
Machine Gun Corps
FINAL RANK:
Private
DATE OF DEATH:
9th September 1916
AGE AT DEATH:
19
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Leuze Wood, Combles
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Thiepval Memorial Pier and Face 5 C and 12 C.
Private Frederick Gordon Best
Born September 4th 1897, Gordon was the third of seven children, and eldest son, of Frederick and Edith Best, who were at that point residents of Ardbeg Road in Herne Hill.
He signed up as a member of the London Scottish at the start of September 1914, just before his seventeenth birthday, utilising the fact he was “tall and well developed” to circumvent age restrictions. In October 1915, just after his eighteenth birthday, he was sent to France for the first time. Over the next eight months he was involved in many actions, but always managed to come through unscathed, even including the first day of the Somme – shortly after which Gordon volunteered to transfer to the Machine Gun Corps. On 9th September 1916 he was manning his post in the Leuze Wood, near Combles, when a German shell hit, killing him instantly – he had been on the verge of gaining a commission, and intended to enrol for Sandhurst.
