Name
Thomas Waller
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/06/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
202840
Essex Regiment
11th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I. S. 33.
France
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK & THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Marlowes Baptist Church, Marlowes, St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End, We are not aware of any memorial in Two Waters, Not on the Boxmoor memorials, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Thomas Waller was born in Boxmoor, Herts in 8 March 1889, the son of Henry and Mary Ann Waller and baptised on 21 April at St Mary's Church, Apsley End. He was one of four children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 4 Two Waters Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead where his father and older brother were working in the Paper Mill. By 1911 they had moved to 2 New Buildings, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead and both Thomas and his father were working at the Paper Mill.
He married Mabel Allun in Marlowes Baptist Church, Hemel Hempstead on 26 February 1916 and they lived at 8 Albion Terrace, Two Waters, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Mabel's address on pension records was 88 Harlesden Gardens, Harlesden, London later changed to 5 Leith Yard, Quex Road, Kilburn, London NW.
Recorded as living in Two Waters, Hemel Hempstead when he enlisted in Hertford.
Wartime Service
Thomas enlisted in Hertford and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment (reg. no. 271022), and went to Bury St Edmunds for basic training. He had some home leave in February 1916 to get married and was sent to France later in the year, being posted to the 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment.
It is likely that he fought in the Battle of Hill 70 in late August and at Cambrai at the end of the year. In March 1917 he fought in the Battle of St Quentin (Second Battle of the Somme).
He was killed in action in France on 28 June 1917, age 28, when the Battalion was at Mazingarbe, south of St Omer, and is buried in the Philosophe British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £7 and pay owing of £2 15s 6d. She also received a pension of 13 shillings 9 pence a week from 7 January 1918. While living at 8 Albion Terrace, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., she ordered his headstone inscription: "UNTIL THE DAY BREAK & THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY".
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
