Forename: Robert Frederick
Surname: Gegg
Rank: Private
Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment
Institution: St Paul’s Practising School
Robert Frederick “Fred” Gegg was born on 9 August 1897, son of Robert and Kate Gegg. He attended St Mary’s Church school in Prestbury before transferring to the Practising School on 5 July 1910. He left in August 1911 to work as an errand boy.
Four years later he enlisted in the 7th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and was sent to Gallipoli in August 1915. His battalion later travelled to Mesopotamia via Egypt, where British forces were fighting to expel the Turks from Kut-al-Amara prior to advancing on Baghdad. Robert was shot dead on 3 February 1917 and his body lay in no man’s land until his Cheltonian friend Private Hampton retrieved his body at night and buried him behind the British lines. Private Gegg’s grave has subsequently been lost and he is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in modern-day Iraq.