1st / 12th Battalion London Regiment (The Rangers)
Raymond Pockett was born in Cheltenham in 1897, the son of John Daniel and Annie Maria Pockett of 45 Burton Street. Before the war he worked as an ironmonger in Cheltenham High Street.
In June 1915 he enlisted with the Gloucestershire Regiment as Private 23351 in the 11th Battalion and was promoted to Lance Corporal. A year later he was transferred to the 1st/12th Battalion London Regiment in the 56th Territorial Division, Fourth Army in France. He received a head wound on 9 September 1916 at the Battle of Ginchy during the Somme offensive but recovered quickly and returned to duty later in the month. Two promotions followed in quick succession; he was made Sergeant on 23 October 1916.
In 1917 the 56th Division saw action during the Battles of Arras and Third Ypres before being allocated to the Third Army for the Cambrai attack near the end of the year.
Sergeant Pockett received two weeks home leave at the beginning of November, this would prove to be the last time he would see his family. He returned to the front to fight in the Battle of Cambrai, firstly at Bourlon Wood and then during German counterattacks near Anneux on the
Baupaume to Cambrai road where he was killed in action on 1 December 1917.
Sergeant Pockett has no known grave and is commemorated on the Cambrai Louverval Memorial. He is also commemorated on the north panel of the Cheltenham War Memorial.