Extract from the  Dover War Memorial Project  http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Casualties/WWI/SurnamesG.htm
Goldstraw, G. P.
Gerald Parker Goldstraw, 19483, was the only son of the Rev and Mrs W W Goldstraw. He had been educated at Nantwich Grammar School, and had then become a bank clerk at Deal. He joined the army in September 1915, serving in the Royal Fusilers, 26th battalion. Two days after his twenty first brithday, in May 1916, after finsihing his training, he went to the Front.  There he served in the trenches, going over the parapet a number of times to fix barbed wire, and in September 1916 he went into action. He was killed in an advance on 7th October. 

A comrade who was at his side and sent the news of his death, wrote, "He was buried at night on the field of honour, on the spot where he was hit. He was most popular with us all, being very unselfish, and I am sure he is now resting in the peace of God, being released from the severe struggles we have lately been through."

Gerald is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, and a memorial service was held for him on 12th November 1916 in the London Road Primitive Methodist Church. It was full with worshippers, expressing their sympathy and showing respect to his memory. The Communion Table was decorated with white flowers, placed around the Roll of Honour on which Gerald's name was inscribed.

The service was taken by the Rev Holyoak, after the Rev A G Gray of the Royal Flying Corps, had an accident which rendered him unable to do so. The sermon was based on Revelations iii, vs10, "Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I will also keep thee". There were passages from the Scriptures, some words from the order for the Burial of the Dead, and a number of hymns: "O God Our Help in Ages Past", "There Is No Night in Heaven" "Lo! Round the Throne at God's Right Hand" "Christ Will Gather in His Own" and "For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest".

Many people had kind words to speak about Gerald. The Primitive Methodist Chaplain at Aldershot said he was "always so kindly, so straight, so friendly, so generous". The Manager of the National Provincial Bank at Deal said, "He was a lad of whom any father might have been proud. Had he lived he would have risen high in the Bank's service". His friend, with him when he died, wrote, "Gerald had made the supreme sacrifice which so many fine lads of our glorious battalion have made, and I am quite certain none bore his pain and died more cheerfully than he."