Name
William Thomas Hill
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/08/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
8690
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LA FERTE-SOUS-JOUARRE MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Radlett Town Memorial, Christchurch Memorial, Radlett, Not on the Aldenham memorials
Pre War
William Thomas Hill was born in 1889 in Aldenham, Herts, the youngest son of Thomas and Eliza Hill.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Battlers Green, Radlett, Aldenham, where his father worked as an agricultural labourer, and remained there in 1901. By 1911 he had enlisted into the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment and was listed as serving in Bermuda.
The family later lived at 7 Station Road, Radlett.
Wartime Service
As a serving soldier (or reservist) he would have been one of the first to be sent to France and he enlisted in St Albans and served with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in France from 16 August 1914.
William was soon in action on 23 August at the Battle of Mons but was killed in action on 26 August during the Battle of Le Cateau. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £3 14s 0d was split between his mother and 5 siblings, Elizabeth, James, George, Charles and Margaret. His mother was awarded a pension of 7s 7d a week from 2 December 1917.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
