Bernard Bocking
2nd Lieutenant - Yorkshire Regiment, attd. 11th Bn., East Yorkshire Regiment
Killed in action on Wednesday 21st August 1918, aged 20
Buried Outtersteene Cemetery, Bailleul, Nord, France
Rev. John Bocking from Derbyshire married Yorkshire born Sarah Ryder in 1893 at
Lambeth and had 10 children. Henry and Maud (the two youngest) were born in Gnosall.
The others were from Fenton, Stoke on Trent. John Bocking became vicar at Gnosall
following the death of Rev. John Till in 1901
Bernard Bocking was born in 1898.
He first served as a 2nd Lt with the London Regiment and joined the 12th battalion
“Teesside Pioneers” in a draft of replacements in October of 1917 at Moislains.
Despite being a pioneer unit, 2nd Lt Bocking and the battalion were in the thick of the
fighting at Bourlon Wood in late 1917 and during the enemy spring offensive of early 1918
where they fought on the river Lys.
The break up of the 12th battalion began on May 5th when 2nd Lt Bocking and other
officers and men were returned to the base depot at Calais to be redeployed. He was then
attached to the 11th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was awarded the
Military Cross July 1918
Bernard was killed in
action on August 21st
1918 at the age of
20.He fell in bitter
fighting for the
Outtersteene Ridge not
far from Bailleul.
Bernard Bocking is
buried at Outtersteene
Communal Cemetery
Extension three miles
south west of Bailleul.
He is buried in plot 2,
row H, grave 52 –
which in the picture is
towards the north/top
just to the right of the
Great Cross. (Grave
nearest cross is ‘60’).
This is the grave Inscription, as chosen by his parents: -