Name
(Arthur) Thomas Everitt
1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/03/1916
36
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3/8430
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MENIN ROAD SOUTH MILITARY CEMETERY
I. L. 15.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
A LOVING FATHER A FATHER KIND A BEAUTIFUL MEMORY LEFT BEHIND
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End,
GB Kent & Sons (Kent Brushes) Memorial, Apsley
Pre War
Arthur Thomas Everitt (known as Thomas) was born in 1880 in Luton, Beds, the eldest son of Thomas and Rhoda Everitt, and one of six children.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at 58 Hastings Road, Luton where his father worked as a Straw Hat Machinist. They remained in Luton on 1891 Census but had moved to 61 Salisbury Road and his father had changed his occupation to Butcher.
He married Rosa Smith in Luton in 1897 and on the 1901 Census they were living at 19 Weymouth Street, Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead with their two children, Sidney and Nellie. Thomas was working as a Stock Keeper at John Dickinson & Co. (paper manufacturers). They remained in Weymouth Street in 1911 but had moved to no. 24. They eventually had six children: Sidney, Nellie, Florence, Stanley, Lilian and Rosa.
He worked for G B Kent & Sons, brushmakers of Apsley and lived at 62 Apsley End, nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts on enlistment. His widow later moved to 7 Darrants Hill, Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
Thomas volunteered in September 1914, enlisting in Watford, and was drafted in the following year to the Western Front, serving in the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
He went to Brighton for basic training and later trained in Woking, Surrey. He arrived at Boulogne, France on 30 August 1915.
The Battalion first saw action in September at the Battle of Loos and were the first to experience the use of phosgene gas by the Germans, the following December, which resulted in hundreds of casualties.
Thomas returned home on leave in early February, returning to France on 16 February, and was with his Battalion by the 24th, when he was involved in trench work before moving to the front line at the Menin Road on the 29th.
He was killed in action near Ypres on 1 March 1916, aged 36. He is buried at Menin Road, South Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
(N.B. On the CWGC and all army records he is listed as either A T Everitt or Arthur Thomas Everitt)
Additional Information
We believe that Alfred Thomas Everitt appears as T Everitt on the Apsley memorial.
His widow, Mrs R Everitt, 62 Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. ordered his headstone inscription: "A LOVING FATHER A FATHER KIND A BEAUTIFUL MEMORY LEFT BEHIND".
His widow Rosa received a war gratuity of £6 and pay owing of £2 5s 5d. She also received a pension of £1 5s 0d a week from 18 September 1916.
(N.B. His birth was registered as Thomas Everitt and he was known as Thomas on all Censuses as well as at the registration of his marriage. He is listed as A T Everitt on the Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, but as T Everitt on the G B Kent and St Mary's Memorial, Apsley.)
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroescom.
