Name
Herbert Joseph Elsom
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/05/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
79009
Royal Garrison Artillery
122nd Siege Bty.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
XXV. D. 3A.
France
Headstone Inscription
REST IN PEACE THY WILL BE DONE FROM HIS DEAR MOTHER BROTHER AND SISTERS
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary the Virgin Roll of Honour, Welwyn, St Michael & All Angels Church Memorial (paper sheet), Woolmer Green
Pre War
Herbert Joseph Elsom was born in 1888 in Woolmer Green, nr, Welwyn, Herts, the son of Joseph Elsom and Isabella Jane (nee Nash).
On the 1901 Census the family were living in Woolmer Green and his mother was shown as Head of the household and her occupation as Wife of a Gravel Pit Labourer.
On the 1911 Census, he was living with his family in Woolmer Green and working as a labourer in the gravel pit.
He had full brother, Arthur and a half sister named as Ellen Maria Shadbolt on his service record.
Wartime Service
Herbert attested on 11 February 1916 in Hitchin while living in Woolmer Green and working as a labourer and giving his mother as next of kin.
He was mobilised on 1 May 1916 and posted to the Royal Garrison Artillery No. 1 Depot, then posted to the 40th Company on 17 May 1916, followed by the 'B' Siege Depot on 24 June 1916, the Depot and the Base.
After training he was sent to France on 12 Aug 1916 and joined the 122nd Siege Battery in the field on 20 August 1916. The 122nd Siege Battery had only recently been raised and equipped with Howitzers.
He was wounded in action by a severe gunshot wound to the back on 16 May 1917 and admitted to Hospital on 19 May 1917. He died of his wounds on 26 May 1917 at the 26th General Hospital in Etaples aged 28, and is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, France.
His wounding and subsequent death was reported in the Hertford Mercury on 2nd June 1917.
Additional Information
His mother Isabella received a war gratuity of £3 10s and pay owing of £4 9s. She also received a pension of 6 shillings a week.
N.B. There is some confusion on some records about this soldier's first name, i.e. his birth name was registered as Herbert Joseph and he appears as Herbert in the CWGC records, war service record, medal record and pension record but is listed as Ernest in the Soldiers Died in the Great War database. In addition, the Woolmer Green memorial incorrectly names him as 'Bison' not Elsom and on some records Elsom is sometimes mis-transcribed as Elson.
His mother, Mrs I J Elsom, Woolmer Green, Stevenage, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "REST IN PEACE THY WILL BE DONE FROM HIS DEAR MOTHER BROTHER AND SISTERS".
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer
