RIFLEMAN SAMUEL GUNN
KING'S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS
27TH JULY 1916 AGE 20
BURIED: DIVE COPSE BRITISH CEMETERY, SAILLY-LE-SEC, FRANCE
"Well played! Lad", the sort of thing said to someone as they come off the cricket pitch having made a century, or scored the winning goal in a close fought football match, is what Samuel Gunn's mother chose for his headstone inscription. It speaks of affectionate approval.
Samuel's family came from Nottinghamshire where there was a famous sporting family called Gunn that included William and his nephews John and George who all played cricket for Nottinghamshire and England in the early years of the nineteenth century. However, despite the same surname and his sporting inscription, there is so far absolutely nothing to link Samuel Gunn with William, John and George Gunn.
The sporting Gunn family founded Gunn and Moore a sports equipment company in Nottingham. Samuel Gunn's father owned a hosiery business in Ruddington where Samuel also worked. He served with the 1st Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps and was killed on 27 July 1916 in defending a determined German counter-attack on Delville Wood. Sergeant Albert Gill, also of the 1st Battalion KRRC, won a Victoria Cross for his part in this action.