Name
Harold Arthur Kentfield
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/02/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
204448
South Staffordshire Regiment
2nd/6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MORY ABBEY MILITARY CEMETERY, MORY
III. I. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE HATH DONE WHAT HE COULD R.I.P.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Harpenden memorials
Pre War
Harold Arthur was born in 1895 in Langley Berks to Arthur Henry Kentfield, a jobbing Gardener and Harriet Emma (nee Squelch).
On the 1901 Census the family were living in Labright Road, Barnet. On the 1911 Census the family were still living in Barnet but now at Puller Road. Harold now 16 was working at a dairy. He had 2 younger sisters – Rhoda and Lilian. Harold’s family later moved to live at Sycamore Cottage, Leyton Road, Harpenden.
Wartime Service
Harold enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps as Private T4/238098 but was transferred to the South Staffordshire Regiment and re-numbered as 204448 in 2/6th Battalion, which was designated as a Territorial Force (TF) unit.
The 2/6 South Staffs had been deployed to France on 25 Feb 1917 and had been stationed in the Somme area as well as at Ypres before taking over a section of the front line at Bullecourt near St Quentin, their task to prepare their position prior to an attack by the Germans (Operation Michael and the Battle of St Quentin, Mar 1918). Harold was killed in action on 15 Feb 1918 during these preparations.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs. H. E. Kentfield, Sycamore Cottage, Leyton Rd., Harpenden, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "HE HATH DONE WHAT HE COULD R.I.P.". On Harold's Soldiers Died in the Great War record his birthplace is recorded as Torquay, an error.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
