Name
Harold John West
9/07/1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/08/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
527413
Royal Army Medical Corps
1st London Sanitary Section.
attd. Intelligence (B) Field Police
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PERNES BRITISH CEMETERY
III. A. 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
NO THOUGHT OF GLORY TO BE WON ONLY HIS DUTY TO BE DONE
UK & Other Memorials
Borehamwood Town Memorial, All Saints Church Memorial, Borehamwood
Pre War
Harold John West was born in Faversham, Kent, on 9 July 1895, son of John West and Gertrude Maude Sophia West, (nee Wickings). His father was the Manager of the Paris, branch of a British Photographic Goods Manufacturer.
He was Baptised on 11 August 1895, at St Mary Magdalene Church, Davington, Kent, his parent’s abode is recorded as Paris, France. (His parents were married in the same Church in 1894). Harold and his younger sister Kathleen Maude West (B 1896) spent their early life living in France, with their parents.
1911 Census records Harold back in England, aged 15, working as an Office Clerk and a boarder living with Daisy Mary Weldon, at, “Waverley” Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Herts.
It is believed Harold attended Westminster Polytechnic.
Wartime Service
Harold tried to enlist at the outbreak war, but due to being nearly blind in one eye he was turned down.
In January 1915, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, with the service number, initially 441, then 527413. He arrived in France in May 1915, transferred to serve in Gallipoli in July 1915, and was a Suvla until the evacuation in December 1915, from there he went to Egypt, until the spring of 1917, when he was posted to France. All with the RAMC.
He was attached to the Intelligence (B) Field Police at the time of his death. He was killed in a Railway Collision at Bruary, Pas-de-Calais, France, whilst on duty regulating civilian traffic on 1 August 1918, aged 23.
He is also shown as being employed by Intelligence (B) Police, this employment was hidden, and he would have only referred to his main unit i.e., RAMC.
Additional Information
His father John West received his effects of £4-15s-10d, Pay Owing and his War Gratuity of £16-10s-00d. His obituary is recorded in the Polytechnic Magazine.
Acknowledgments
Taff Williams, Stuart Osborne
