War Memorial
Ernest Mark Young, known to most simply as Mark Young, was born at Speldhurst in Kent around 1885, the youngest son of Thomas and Margaret Young. The family made their home at Charcott, and the 1901 census records sixteen-year-old Mark working as a carter's mate, living at home alongside three brothers and a sister.
When war came, Mark enlisted at Maidstone and joined the 104th Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Private, with the service number 24388. He saw service in the Mesopotamia campaign, where the siege of Kut ended in surrender on 16th April 1916. Many of those taken prisoner by the Ottoman Army did not survive captivity, and twenty-five men of the Royal Garrison Artillery lost their lives on 31st December 1916 alone. Because the exact date of death for some prisoners was unknown, it was recorded as the end of that year, and Mark is officially commemorated as dying on 31st December 1916, aged 35. He was awarded two campaign medals, and his name appears on the Basra Memorial in Iraq.
His family's grief is still visible locally. The family gravestone in St Luke's churchyard, Chiddingstone Causeway, records Ernest Mark as having died on active service at Kut on 16th April 1916, aged 31 — details that differ from the official record. Thomas Young lived until 30th April 1918, dying at 73, and Margaret followed on 23rd December 1927 at the age of 79.
Mark is remembered on the Leigh war memorial, the Chiddingstone Causeway war memorial and the Edenbridge Hospital War Memorial, as well as on his parents' gravestone.