Name
Harry Walter George Waldock
1900
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/11/1918
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
185733
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ASHWELL (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
TO ONE WE LOVED SO WELL GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
UK & Other Memorials
Ashwell Village Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Ashwell
Pre War
Harry Walter George Waldock was born on 28 April 1900 in Ashwell, Herts, the eldest son of Frank Benjamin and Florence Mary Ann (Polly) Waldock (nee Clements) and one of five children. He was baptised on 3 June 1900 at St Mary's Ashwell and was educated at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Back Street, Ashwell, where his father was working as a horsekeeper on a farm. They remained there in 1911 at which time Back Street had been renamed as Silver Street, and Harry was a ten year old schoolboy. he worked as a drayman prior to enlistment.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Bedford on 30 May 1918 and called up for service on 19 July 1918, then joining the Machine Gun Corps. Whilst in training with the 86th Training Reserve Battalion, he became ill and died of pneumonia at Cannock Chase Military Hospital, Staffordshire, on 12 November 1918, aged 18. He was buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Ashwell on 19 November 1918. The Hertfordshire Express featured an article on 30 November 1918 announcing Harry's death from bronchitis following influenza. At the funeral his coffin, covered with the Union Jack, was carried on a gun carriage by a firing party of R.E.s who fired three volleys over the grave.
Additional Information
Although a war gratuity was inadmissible, his father did receive pay owing of £2 18s 11d and his mother received a pension of 8 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk
