Name
Richard Francis Gillett
22 April 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/08/1916
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
M2/101326
Army Service Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY
V. H. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
NONE OF US LIVETH TO HIMSELF AND NO MAN DIETH TO HIMSELF ROM. XIV.7.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials, Harburtonford War Memorial, Devon
Pre War
Richard Francis Gillett was born in Croydon, Surrey on 22 April 1888, one of two children of Leonard and Edith Gillett, and baptised at St Luke, Derby on 7 June 1888. (N.B. His maternal grandmother lived in Penge, Croydon, Surrey at the time of his birth).
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 59 Uttoxeter New Road, Derby, where his father was working as a Mining Engineer.
On the 1901 Census he was a pupil boarding at Brampton Park, Huntingdon.
By 1911 His family had moved to Austins Place, Harburtonford, Devon and Richard was working as an articled lawyers Clerk.
Prior to enlistment he was employed as a clerk for Messrs Adams and Colvile, solicitors of Hemel Hempstead and Old Jewry, London, EC2. He was temporary honorary secretary of the Hemel Hempstead Volunteer Training Corps.
His father died in Totnes at the end of 1915.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Grove Park, London on 28 May 1915 and gave his trade as a Motor Driver. He served with the Army Service Corps in France, arriving at La Havre on 27 August 1915.
He died on 7 August 1916 at the 33rd Casualty Clearing Station. as a result of wounds and burns sustained in action by shell fire and is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs E E Gillett, The Gables, Stoke-under-Ham, Somerset, ordered his headstone inscription: "NONE OF US LIVETH TO HIMSELF AND NO MAN DIETH TO HIMSELF ROM. XIV.7.". His brother Basil was granted probate of his estate on 29 March 1917 with effects of £9954 11s 6d. He received a war gratuity of £4 10s and pay owing of £34 7s 4d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
dacorumheritage.org.uk, henelatwar.org.
