Lieutenant Gaston de Pret

Regiment: 1st Lancers, Belgian Army
Date published: 22/02/1918
Killed in action: Yes
Date of death: 18/01/1918
Age at death: 23
Cemetery: Oeren Belgian Military Cemetery, Belgium
Plot: 480
Information: Lieutenant Gaston de Pret, 1st Lancers, Belgian Army, stepson and son of Colonel and Mrs. Fowle, Royal Hospital, Dublin, killed in action in Flanders, aged 23. was educated at Hailey bury College. He joined the Belgian Army in November, 1913, and at the outbreak of the war was serving as a Marechal de logis (N.C.O.) in the ranks of the 3rd Lancers. He took part in all the early engagements, including the battles of Oestmal and Louvain, where his regiment suffered severely. In 1915 he was in charge of the Machine Gun detachment of his regiment. In 1916, after qualifying at the Belgian Cavalry School, he was gazetted to a commission in the 1st Lancers. He met his death while gallantly defending a front line trench during an unusually heavy bombardment. For his gallant conduct H.M. the King of the Belgians made him Chevalier de l'ordre de Leopold, and awarded him the Croix de Guerre. He was devoted to his men, many of whom he sent on leave to Ireland, where they are cared for by the Belgian Refugee Committee. Lieut. G. de Pret was a fine horseman and a good rider to hounds, and very popular in the hunting field.