Name
Gordon Victor Hemeley
3 November 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/09/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36334
Royal Berkshire Regiment
6th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 11 D.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, Sunnyside War Memorial, Berkhamsted, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Gordon Victor Hemeley was born in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, on 3 November 1893, the son of Margaret Hemeley, a domestic servant who lived at 27 Green End Road in Boxmoor where Gordon was born. His father is not known.
On the 1901 Census, he and his mother were living with his grandparents, George and Dorcas Hemeley at 27 Green End, Boxmoor, near The Grapes public house. His grandfather was a Groom (Livery) and his mother was working as a charwoman.
Gordon attended Boxmoor school and left on 9 April 1909 when he was 13 to enter domestic service.
On the 1911 Census he remained with his grandparents and worked as a gardener, with his grandfather still working as a Groom. His mother was at that time living with her brother Robert and his wife Elizabeth and their family at 59 Belmont Street, St Pancras, and working as a Cook Domestic.
He married Mercy Cook on 14 June 1916 in Great Berkhamsted, Herts before he was sent to France and they lived at 31 Storer Street, Hemel Hempstead. They had no children.
Wartime Service
He attested in Hertford in late 1915 and initially joined the Hertfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 5988, but was not called up until January 1916. He was then assigned to the 6th Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire) Regiment.
He was sent to France in July 1916 and saw action at the Battles of Bazentin Ridge and Delville Wood before he was killed in action on 29 September, aged 22, from shellfire at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
N.B. The surname Hemeley is sometimes misspelt as Hemley.
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £2 17s 1d. She also received a pension of 13s 9d a week. Mercy remarried to Alfred Potter in Berkhamsted in early 1923.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelheroes.com
