Name
Harry Ronald Hiscock
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/03/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Air Mechanic 2nd Class
56561
Royal Flying Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD (HEATH LANE) CEMETERY
W. 21.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
ONLY "GOOD NIGHT" BELOVED NOT FAREWELL
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Harry Ronald Hiscock, known as Ron, was born in 1894 in Wandsworth, Middlesex, the son of Harry and Florence Hiscock and the oldest of their six children.
The family initially moved to Aylesbury where his father opened a bicycle shop and moved again in about 1900 to Hemel Hempstead. On the 1901 Census the family were living at Clifton Villa, Bridge Street, Hemel Hempstead where his father was a cycle maker and agent for sewing machines. His father's cycle shop was at 82 Marlowes and later expanded to No. 80 as well and also sold gramophones and records.
Ron and brother Victor started school in May 1902 at Boxmoor school which recorded that both boys had been privately educated before their arrival. Their irregular attendance was noted, but they left Boxmoor in 1904 to go to a 'private school' and by 1911 they were both employed by their father in his cycle shop. At that time the family were living at Gladstone Villa on Crescent Road.
Wartime Service
A local newspaper report stated that Ron made several attempts to join the army but was rejected each time, perhaps because of health or fitness. Eventually he passed the tests to become an Air Mechanic and in early February 1917 he enlisted into the Royal Flying Corps, however his service was short-lived when he became ill with influenza. He was admitted to hospital but died two weeks later on 3 March 1917 in Farnborough, Hants, aged 22.
He was given a full military military funeral and is buried in Hemel Hempstead (Heath Lane) Cemetery, Herts.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs F Hiscock, Sulina, Rackhall, Canvey Island, Essex, ordered his headstone inscription: "ONLY "GOOD NIGHT" BELOVED NOT FAREWELL". A war gratuity was not admissible but his father received his pay owing of £3 11s. His two brothers Victor and Hubert also served but survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com, www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk,
