Name
Herbert Orchard
7 April 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/06/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
203223
York and Lancaster Regiment
1st/4th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 105 and 106.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Herbert Orchard was born in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 7 April 1897, the son of Robert and Emma Orchard, and baptised at St John the Evangelist Church, Boxmoor on 5 May 1897. He was one of three children, but his sister Ethel died aged 3 in 1893 and his older brother Robert died in 1912 aged 20. He also had a step-sister Nellie.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living at 30 St John's Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Sawyer at the local saw mill. Sadly his mother died in 1901 and was buried at Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead on 21 August 1901.
He was educated at Boxmoor school from 8 February 1904, leaving on 23 March 1910 to start work as a wood turner at Foster's Saw Mills in Boxmoor.
His widowed father remained living at 30 St John's Road, Boxmoor on the 1911 Census with Robert and Herbert and they were joined by his stepsister Nellie, her husband George Bates and their daughter Lilian. Herbert, then aged 13, was then working as an Assistant in the Card Making Department of the Stationery Manufacturer (John Dickinson & Co.)
Wartime Service
Herbert enlisted in Hertford, initially with the Hertfordshire Regiment (reg. no. 5478), in August 1915 when he declared his age was 19 years and 2 months. He was in fact a year younger, (perhaps hoping he would be sent overseas sooner), but after training he wasn't sent to France until 30 August 1916.
He was transferred to the 1st /4th York and Lancaster Regiment on 20 September 1916 and saw action in the trenches, He was part of a night time raiding party on an enemy position on 12 June 1917, when they entered enemy trenches and captured 13 prisoners, but 20 men were killed, 57 wounded and 9 missing in the operation. Herbert was one of the missing presumed killed in action.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His sister Mrs Nellie Bates received a war gratuity of £8 and pay owing of £3 6s 9d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week from 6 November 1918. Brother in law to George Bates who served with the Welsh Regiment and died on 3 August 1917 and who is also named on the Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www. hemelheroes.com
