Marshall Verdi Renard, my father's third cousin, was the second son of George and Ada Renard to survive childhood.  His father was a music teacher at the time of his birth hence the unusual middle name.  He was born on 6 April 1900 at 28 Abingdon Street, Manningham, Bradford, Yorkshire.  By 1911 Marshall had moved with his family to the Rifleman Inn in Hove, Sussex where his father George was the publican.  There is no surviving Service Record for Marshall but he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1914 or 1915, signing up in Hove. From the surviving records, Marshall appears to have changed his middle name fom Verdi to Victor at this time.  Marshall was killed during the later part of the Battle of the Somme, during the attack on Bazentin-le-Petit, on 20 August 1916.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Janet Cox