Douglas Haydn Garner was born in Manchester in 1895 to parents Alfred and Alice Garner. Alfred Ernest Garner was a pianoforte maker and dealer. Douglas was the second of four children. By the time Douglas was six the family had moved to Ratcliff London, and in 1911 they were all living at ‘Hesperus’, Grove Road, Wanstead. Douglas and his older brother Alfred were working as clerks whilst their younger siblings Hilda and Sydney were still at school.
Douglas joined the 17th Battalion, Royal Fusilliers and he served with them as a Lance Corporal on the Western Front. He was killed in action on the 22nd August 1916, aged 21.
Douglas Gardner (along with Wilfred Ashton Piercy, Herbert (Hubert) Septimus Ray, Herbert William Robinson, Douglas) has a stained glass window dedicated to his memory in Wanstead Methodist Church.
Research by Redbridge Museum
Sources:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ancestry.com