Name
Ralph Thrale
17 Oct 1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/02/1918
39
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
20567
Royal Field Artillery
5th Div Ammunition Column
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GIAVERA BRITISH CEMETERY, ARCADE
4. C. 5
Italy
Headstone Inscription
HIS MEMORY IS AS DEAR TODAY AS IN THE HOUR HE PASSED AWAY
UK & Other Memorials
St Albans Citizens Memorial, Town Hall (old) Memorial, St Albans, Harpenden Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Harpenden, Not on the Bengeo memorials, Not on the Wheathampstead memorials
Pre War
Ralph was born in Bengeo, Hertford on 17 Oct 1878 to Norman Thrale, a miller, and Caroline (nee Welch).
On the 1881 Census the family consisting of parents, Ernest Norman (born 1865), Alice (born 1869), Rose, (born 1871), Charlotte (born 1872), Clara (born 1874), Ralph, and Infant Katy (born 1881) with Nurse, Sarah Cobb were living at Port Hill, Common, Bengeo, Hertford. On the 1891 Census the family of Father Norman, Alice, Ralph, Katy and Mry (born 1874) were living at The Folly, Wheathampstead (Ralph’s Mother had died in 1884). Ralph’s father died in 1900.
On the 1911 Census Ralph was declared as an asylum attendant at Hill End Hospital, Hertfordshire County Asylum. He was appointed as a Postman in St Albans in Jan 1912. Ralph married Ellen Maud Taylor in Hammersmith, London on 28 May 1913. They had a daughter Mildred May, born in 1915, and lived at 1 West View Cottages, Willoughby Road, Harpenden. Ralph seems to have had previous Military Service but these records were not found.
Wartime Service
Ralph was enlisted in the Royal Field artillery as Gunner 20567. No Service Records were found for Ralph.
He went to France on 19 Aug 1914. His service seems to have been with 8th Brigade RFA which was a formation of 5th Division. This Division was engaged in most of the major battles of WW1 including Ypres, Somme and Passchendaele. Ralph was at some time transferred into 5th Divisional Ammunition Column after break up of 8th Brigade RFA in May 1916 and went to Italy in Nov 1917 with 5 DAC being positioned along the Piave River. Ralph was wounded by an aeroplane bomb while serving there and died from his wounds on 19 Feb 1918.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs E M Thrale, 8 New Kent Road, St Albans, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "HIS MEMORY IS AS DEAR TODAY AS IN THE HOUR HE PASSED AWAY". Arrears of 2s paid to his widow.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Gareth Hughes, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
