Name
David Groom
16 September 1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/09/1916
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
22250
Princess Victoria's Royal Irish Fusiliers
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MIKRA BRITISH CEMETERY, KALAMARIA
Grave Reg. 1699
Greece
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hatfield Town Memorial, Hatfield In Memoriam Book, Welwyn Garden City Memorial, Hatfield Hyde Village Memorial, St. Mary Magdalene, Church Memorial, Hatfield Hyde, Not on the Stevenage memorials We are not aware of any memorial in Norton Green
Pre War
David Groom was born on 16 September1885 in Norton Green, Nr Stevenage, Herts, the son of Thomas and Eliza Groom, and baptised on 29 September 1986.
On the 1901 Census he was a lodger at the home of Thomas and Annie Hemmings at Kneesworth Street, Royston, Herts where he was working as an Agricultural Labourer.
He married Minnie Ward in Hatfield in July 1905 and they were living at 13 Sandpit Cottages, Hatfield Hyde, Herts on the 1911 Census at which time, he was working as a Sandpit Labourer. Their son Lewis John was born in 1903 and registered with the surname Ward, but named as Groom in 1911. He was joined by Daisy in 1906, Thomas in 1908, David in 1910 and William in 1912.
Officially recorded as born in Stevenage and was living in Hatfield Hyde when he enlisted in Hertford.
Wartime Service
David originally enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment and served as Private 8781, serving in France from 3 December 1914. He was later transferred to the 5th Battalion, Princess Victoria's Royal Irish Fusiliers which landed at Gallipoli in 1915.
He died from malaria at the base hospital in Salonika on 30 September 1916 and was buried in Guvezne Cemetery, later being exhumed and reburied in Mikra British Cemetery, Kalamaria, Greece.
The Bishop’s Hatfield Parish Magazine of December 1914, in the fourth list of men mobilised from Hatfield, reported: “Groom David, Hatfield Hyde, 4th Beds Regt.” and in January 1917: “David Groom. The following letter will be of interest to some of our readers as giving long delayed information about the last days of David groom who died some months ago in Salonika, deeply mourned as will be seen by the letter.
13th November 1916... “Dear Mrs Groom, I have just received a letter of enquiry from Lady Florence Cecil re your husband’s death. He took ill with malaria on Sept. 16th and was immediately transferred through the field ambulance to the base hospital at Salonika where he died on Sept. 30th. He was buried at the base........It must have been a sad loss to you, but I trust that God who enabled you to make the sacrifice of letting him come to help his Country in its hour of need will also strengthen and comfort you in the hour of your sorrow. Your husband was a good and gallant soldier and he is a great loss to us. All ranks send their sincere sympathy.
Believe me, yours sincerely, S. Hutchinson, Chaplain.”
Awarded the Victory Medal, British War Medal and 1915 Star.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £3 10s 7d. His widow also received a pension of £1 10s 3d a week for herself and her children.
Hatfield Parish Council Souvenir Committee Ledger: Mrs Groom (Widow) of 16, Sandpit Cottages, Hatfield Hyde received an “In Memoriam and Roll of Honour Album”.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, Christine & Derek Martindale, Hatfield Local History Society (www.hatfieldhistory.uk)
