Name
Jesse William Ward
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/11/1914
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
6871
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BROWN'S ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, FESTUBERT
VIII H 15
France
Headstone Inscription
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN BY HIS WIFE AND DEAR CHILDREN
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Markyate Village Memorial, St John The Baptist Church Memorial, Markyate, Not on the Tring Memorial
Pre War
Jesse William Ward was born in 1882 in Berkhamsted, the son of William Ward, gas fitter, and Ellen (nee Judge) and was one of ten children. He was baptised on 13 April 1884 at Great Berkhamsted.
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, Sarah Ellen (born 1881), Jesse, Harry (Herbert, born 1885), Elizabeth (born 1887), Sidney (born 1889) and Frederick (born 1891) were living at Bridge Street, Berkhamsted where his father was working as a plumber.
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Sarah Ellen (a domestic), Harry (butcher’s boy), Sidney, Frederick, Annie M 0born 1893) and Emily (born 1896) were living at 20, Bridge Street, Berkhamsted.
Jesse had enlisted into the army by 1901 (his service number suggests around October 1900) as Private 6871 in 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment and was recorded on the Census of 1901 as a serving soldier with the Bedfordshire Regiment and residing at the Barracks, 16th Brigade Depot, Kempston, Beds.
He married Edith Mary Penn on 17 April 1907 at Great Berkhamsted and lived at Sunnyside, Buckland Common, Tring, Herts.
On the 1911 Census the family of Jesse, Edith and children Reginald William (born 25 Sep 1907), Lilian Rose (born 15 Feb 1909) were living at 6 Kings Street, Markyate, Herts and Jesse was working as a plumber. They were living in Markyate at the time of his enlistment. There would be a third child Dorothy Gertrude (born 9 Aug 1913.
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found for Jesse but having already served his time as a soldier Jesse was probably still on Reserve and would have been called upon to re-enlist at the outbreak of the Great War in Aug 1914. He enlisted in Berkhamsted and served with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, 15 Brigade, 5 Division in France from 12 September 1914.
Jesse was killed in action on 4 November 1914, aged 32, when the Battalion was in trenches at Gorre, near Festubert. He is buried at Brown's Military Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £4 8s 0d. She also received a pension of £1 0s 6d a week for herself and her children. This was later increased by 2s 6d a week in December 1916. She ordered his headstone inscription while living at Sunnyside, Buckland Common, Tring, Herts. it reads: "GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN BY HIS WIFE AND DEAR CHILDREN".
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, Anne & Gordon Mead, roll-of-honour.com,
