Place Name
Originally Albion Grove it became Ripplevale Grove in 1922 to commemorate Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French (September 28, 1852 – May 22, 1925), First Earl of Ypres, who lived in Ripple Vale, Kent. French’s most important role was as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force for the first 18 months of the First World War. After his troops suffered heavy casualties at the battles of Mons and Le Cateau he wanted to withdraw his troops from the Allied line to refit but was ordered to take part in the First Battle of the Marne. In May 1915 he leaked information about shell shortages to the press in the hope of engineering the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener’s removal. He was blamed for later failures at the Battle of Loos and in 1916 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, as position he held until the end of the war after which he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a position he held throughout much of the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1922), and in which his own sister was involved on the republican side. He later retired having been offered the honorary post of Captain of Deal Castle, where he died of bladder cancer and was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church at Ripple.
