and became the regiment machine-gun ofcer.
His battalion were destined for the Western Front with the 46th (North
Midland) Division and landed at le Havre on 3rd March 1915 and heading
to Ypres, right into the middle of the Second Battle of Ypres, infamous for
being the rst mass use of poison gas by the Germans. The battalion’s
dugouts were situated in the mass of trenches winding between Zillebeke
lake and the Ypres–Comines railway line which ran south-east of Ypres. By
this point Tarr was the acting adjutant of his battalion and he had been put
forward for promotion to captain. On the afternoon of 18th July 1915, he
had visited the dugouts of the 5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, situated
near Zillebeke, to liaise with their adjutant. During a period of German
shelling, Tarr put his head out to tell some men to remain under cover when
a splinter from a shell struck him in the face, killing him. If it had struck any
other part of his body, he would have survived.
The unit war diary records the event quite simply:
18 Jul-15:
Fine – wind breezy Northerly. At 5.40pm Lieutenant F. N. TARR (Acting
Adjutant) was killed by splinter from crump whilst visiting ZILLEBEKE
LAKE dugouts. 2nd Lieutenant R. C. HARVEY took over duties of
Adjutant. At 9.30pm Battalion relieved 5th LINCOLNSHIRE REGT at
ZILLEBEKE LAKE dugouts. Casualties, ofcers killed Lieutenant F. N.
TARR, other ranks 2 men wounded.
Tarr was buried in the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground that night, not far
from where he was killed, around 2km from Zillebeke village. The cemetery
www.voicesofwar.co.uk