Name
Reggie Charles Wren
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/04/1918
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
235260
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
17th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HATFIELD HYDE (ST. MARY MAGDALENE) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Garden City Memorial, Howardsgate, Hatfield Hyde Village Memorial, St. Mary Magdalene, Church Memorial, Hatfield Hyde, Hatfield Town Memorial, Hatfield In Memoriam Book, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Reggie Charles Wren was born in Hatfield, Herts in 1898 the son of Joseph and Lizzie Wren of Hatfield Hyde and one of nine children.
Reggie Charles Wren was born in Hatfield, Herts in 1898 the son of Joseph and Lizzie Wren of Hatfield Hyde and one of nine children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Hatfield Hyde where his father was working as a labourer in the gravel pit. They remained there in 1911 when Reggie was a 13 year old schoolboy. Now his father’s occupation was listed as a ballast pit labourer.
Officially recorded living in Hatfield when he enlisted in Hertford.
Wartime Service
Reggie enlisted in Hertford on 24 November 1915 and joined the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment as Private 6015 but was then transferred to the 17th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 21 June 1917 under service no. 235260.
He sustained a gunshot wound to the right foot on 29 March 1918 and was admitted to the 51st Casualty Clearing Station, later being transferred to the 7th Canadian Stationary Hospital. He was returned to England but contracted tetanus and the foot was amputated. He died of his wounds on 8 April 1918, aged 20, at the 3rd Northern Military Hospital, Sheffield. He is buried in the Churchyard of St Mary Magdalene, Hatfield Hyde, Herts.
The Bishop’s Hatfield Parish Magazine of December 1915, in the sixteenth list of men mobilised from Hatfield, recorded “Wren, Reggie C. – Hyde – 1st Herts. Regt.”
Awarded the British War Medal & Victory Medal.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £10 10s and pay owing of £11 6s and his mother received a pension of 5 shillings a week. N.B. Reggie had an older brother Reginald.
His effects were returned his father and included: his braces, purse, cap comforter, handkerchief, belt, wallet, keys, lighter, badges and buttons, small straps, a pair of scissors, a cigarette holder and case, one piece of shrapnel, a knife, 2 blue chevrons and a personal box containing collar, coins and postcards.
Hatfield Parish Council Souvenir Committee Ledger: Mrs Wren (Mother) received an “In Memoriam & Roll of Honour Album”.
The Album records Reggie as dying at Armentieres which differs from his service records. This may have been where he received his wounds.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild, Michael Burgham, Christine & Derek Martindale, Hatfield Local History Society (www.hatfieldhistory.uk)
