A soldier killed in action during the First World War is to be remembered on a Kentish Ragstone Memorial.

Private Leonard Bristow, from Dartford, was only 18 when he served in the 1st Battalion of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

On December 17, 1914, just four months into the four-year war, he died in boggy, waterlogged trench near the village of Wulverghiem, Belgium.

The village was renamed Wulverghem after the war and Private Bristow was buried in the nearby cemetery, along with over 1,000 Commonwealth servicemen.

Of those, 352 are in unidentified graves and Private Bristow is one of them is.

He was the youngest son of Alfred and Norah Bristow and before the war lived at 26 Walnut Tree Avenue, Wilmington, with them and his two brothers, Ernest and Albert.

His brothers served in the Navy and both returned home alive and unharmed in 1918.

Private Bristow’s great-nephew, Nigel Bristow, wanted to see a fitting memorial for his relative and the rest of his regiment’s fallen.

Mr Bristow’s vision was for a memorial clad in Kentish Ragstone so that “this corner of a Belgian field will forevermore be shared with England”.

He wanted it built near the village of Tertre, Belgium, where the regiment first saw action with the enemy on August 23, 1914, during the Battle of Mons.

With the support of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Living History Group, the Mayor of Tertre, who bought the land for the memorial, and Dignity Funeral Services, for the cladding and slate plaques that adorn the memorial, Mr Bristow succeeded in his quest.

It has been built in a garden of English roses and blue flowers planted to represent Private Bristow’s regimental colours.

In total 6,866 men in the regiment died on the Belgian battlefield not far from Ypres as well as in France, Italy, India, Egypt, Mesopotamia or Salonikac.

The memorial is to commemorate all the regiment’s fallen, regardless of where they died.

An oak bench inscribed with the West Kent regiment’s motto “Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt” (Where Right and Glory Lead) has also been donated by the Regimental Association, The Royal Kent Regiment.

Mr Bristow said: “I am absolutely delighted that the sacrifices of my great-uncle and his fellow soldiers will be recognised.

“My great-uncle is amongst those who have no known grave and I am still researching his past and trying to track down a photograph of him and the medals that were issued to him. My search will continue until they are found.”