Lieutenant John Henry Stephen Dimmer

2nd Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps

Born: 9 October 1883, Wimbledon, SW London.

Died: 21 March 1918.

Buried: Vadencourt British Cemetery, France. Plot 11, Row B, Grave 46.
Headstone.

Enlisted: 1902.

CITATION

On November 12th, 1914, the 2nd Battalion was holding a section of trenches at Klein Zillebeke. Lieutenant Dimmer was in charge of the machine gun section. About noon there was a very heavy artillery bombardment followed by an attack in mass by the Prussian Guard supported by violent machine gun fire. Almost all of the machine gun section were hit, and Lieutenant Dimmer continued firing one gun single-handed. Twice he had to leave his emplacement to remedy stoppages, which he did successfully but each time he was wounded. He was wounded a third time by shrapnel, but continued firing his gun and inflicting enormous casualties on the serried German masses who continued to advance to within 50 yards of our trenches. Then they suddenly broke and ran, but Lieutenant Dimmer was wounded again by the German artillery covering the retreat. However, he insisted, in spite of his wounds, in reporting personally to brigade headquarters.