Name
Herbert Hallett
17 June 1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/10/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4649
20th Hussars (Royal Horse Guards)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 5.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock
Pre War
Herbert Hallett was born on 17 June 1880 in Laceby, Lincolnshire, the son of Thomas and Mary Hallett (nee Partington), and was one of six children.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at Cemetery Road, Laceby where his father was working as a joiner. His mother had been born in Baldock, Herts. She appears on the 1891 Census living at High Street, Baldock with children, Gertrude, Walter, Nellie, Margaret and Charles, Meanwhile, Herbert and his father Thomas were listed as boarders at the home of Samuel Stolen at 2 Tottenham Lane, Hornsey, Middlesex, at which time his father was working as as a carpenter and Herbert was a nine year old scholar.
Herbert's regimental number of 4649 suggests that he joined the 20th Hussars before the end of October 1901 and served during the Boer War. He received the South African Medals for 1901 and 1902 with clasps relating to service in the Orange Free State and Transvaal.
He married Mira Elizabeth Marler in 1908 in Brighton, Sussex and their son Thomas was born in Brighton the following year. Herbert was then working at the Brighton station for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway as a labourer. By the 1911 Census the family were living at 4 Melbourne Street, Lewes Road Brighton, Sussex and he was working as an engine fitter's labourer (railway). His mother-in-law, Sarah Marler, and niece-in-law, Lydia Marler, were living with them as 'boarders'. Their daughter Elsie Mira was born in June 1911. His parents were living in High Street , Baldock on the 1911 Census, where his father was working as a carpenter for a brewery.
Wartime Service
Having previously served in the army he would have been recalled at the outbreak of war. He enlisted in London and served with the 20th Hussars (Royal Life Guards) in Belgium from 7 October 1914.
Herbert was killed in action on 26 October 1914 near Zillebeke, Belgium during the First Battle of Ypres, where the 20th Hussars suffered heavy casualties. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £2 3s 7d. She also received a pension of £1 1s 0d a week for herself and her two children. Her address on pension records was given as 11 Pevensey Road, Brighton, Sussex.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson
