Name
Joseph Webb
2 June 1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/04/1916
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
17443
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ESSEX FARM CEMETERY
II.G.2
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS
UK & Other Memorials
Cotton End Village Memorial, Beds
Pre War
Joseph Webb was born on 2 June 1881 in Lower Caldecote (not Codicote), Bedfordshire, the son of John and Emma Webb and one of thirteen children, although one had died by 1911.
He married Ann Ethel Bowles in 1905 in Biggleswade and they had a daughter. Doris Maud, born 1908. On the 1911 Census they were living at Manor Farm, Cotton End, Bedford where Joseph was working as a Farm Labourer. They later had two more children, Leslie in 1911 and Edith in 1913.
His parents remained living at Lower Caldecote on the 1911 Census.
Wartime Service
Joseph enlisted in Bedford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, serving with the 8th Battalion in France from 27 October 1915.
He was killed in action on 19 April 1916, aged 35, when the Battalion were situated in trenches at Ijser (Yser) Canal Bank, Belgium. The Germans had subjected them to 2 hours of heavy bombardment and then attacked, gaining a foothold in the trenches, Joseph was one of 32 soldiers killed, another 65 were wounded and 97 were missing believed killed.
He is buried in Essex Farm Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £6 10s and pay owing of 13s 9d. She also received a pension for herself and her three children of £1 0s 6d a week. She later remarried to Ernest Darnell in 1920. N.B. Although Joseph Webb is recorded on some records as being born in Codicote, it is believed this is incorrect and he was actually born in Lower Caldecote/Northill, Beds.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer
