Name
Thomas Valentine Lambert
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/08/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
TR/10/156641
Royal West Surrey Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KINGS LANGLEY (ALL SAINTS) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley, Not on the Abbots Langley memorials
Pre War
Thomas Valentine Lambert was born in 1898 in Abbots Langley, Herts, the son of Herbert and May Lambert, and baptised at All Saints Church, Kings Langley on 20 September 1898. He was one of seven children.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living in Railway Terrace, Abbots Langley, where his father was working as a bricklayer. They had moved to Primrose Hill, Kings Langley by the time of the 1911 Census. Thomas finished school in 1911 and started work at John Dickinson & Co Ltd in the Stamping Room at Apsley Mills.
His parents later lived at 8 East View, London Road, Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead and prior to enlistment he had worked as a 'Layer On' (part of the paper making process, at John Dickinson & Co, Apsley Mills.
Wartime Service
Thomas was too young to enlist at the outbreak of war, but he travelled to St Albans to enlist on 26 October 1914, claiming to have been born in 1895, and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. (reg. no. 17504) He was posted to the 8th Battalion and sent for basic training at Bedford, followed by Brighton and then Woking, Surrey.
The Battalion sailed from Dover on 29 August 1915, arriving at Boulogne the following morning, but Thomas followed a month later and arrived in France on 4 October 1915, joining his unit an Vlamertinghe as part of a draft of 115 men.
Thomas saw action in the trenches until 3 January 1916 when he was evacuated to England suffering from Trench Foot, and admitted to the London General Hospital in Denmark Hill. This was a common problem for soldiers in the cold and wet conditions in the trenches and many soldiers died from the infection, however after three weeks treatment, Thomas was discharged to a base depot to await posting.
In February 1916 he was posted to the 10th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, a reserve battalion based at Dovercourt, Harwich and assigned to coastal defence duties.
He was sent overseas again the following September and initially posted to the 28th Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, later being transferred to the 51st Battalion. (TR/10/156641)
On 24 February 1917 he was appointed Lance Corporal and Acting Corporal from 19 May 1917. He qualified as a regimental instructor in anti gas procedures on 14 December 1917 and was promoted again to Lance Sergeant on 31 March 1918.
He was treated at 319th Field Ambulance from 28 to 29 May 1918 with incontinence of urine and transferred to the Eastern General Hospital, Cambridge where was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and remained there until he was discharged on 13 August 1918 as being no longer fit for war service. He was awarded a silver war badge on 13 August 1918, no. B214768.
Thomas returned home to Boxmoor and died five days later from the disease on 18 August 1918, aged 20, and is buried in Kings Langley Churchyard.
Additional Information
Both parents received a share of the war gratuity of £19 and his mother received pay owing of £5 3s 9d. No war pension was payable as the Medical Board determined that Thomas's death was "neither due to nor aggravated by service during war " Not found on CWGC website as he is not officially recognised as a victim of the Great War.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
