Name
Major William Pain(e)
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/06/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
35888
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
69th Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley,
Boxmoor Baptist Church Memorial (now Carey Baptist Church), Marlowes
Pre War
Major William Pain was born in 1890 in Boxmoor, nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of George and Jane Pain and one of six children. (N.B. Major was his given name and is believed to be of Norman origin)
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Home Farm, 52 St John's Road, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was a Dairyman but after his father died in 1906, his brother Herbert took over the dairy and Major moved with his widowed mother and siblings George and Ethel, to 117 Horsecroft Road, Boxmoor where they were residing in 1911. Major was then working as a Business Clerk, having joined John Dickinson & Co Ltd when he left school. He continued to work there until enlistment after war broke out.
Wartime Service
Major went to Watford on 8 December 1915 to attest (approved in Bedford on 12 February 1916) and enlisted with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 26259. This was a Reserve Battalion which initially moved to Felixstowe, Suffolk to provide home defence around Harwich. After basic training he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and was sent to France, leaving Folkestone on 25 June 1916 and joining the Base depot at Camiers.
On 5 July he joined the 168th Company, and shortly after transferred to the 69th Company. His conduct sheet show a few instances of being reprimanded for inattention on parade, laughing on parade and and not being shaved, for which he was punished by being given extra fatigues or losing a days pay.
On 6 June 1917 the 65th Machine Gun Corps was south of Ypres preparing for the Battle of Messines Ridge, which had been a strategic German stronghold since 1914. It had begun with a huge artillery bombardment of the German lines which started on 21 May and stopped in the early morning of 7 June, only to be replaced with the detonation of mines which had been placed underground beneath enemy positions. This huge explosion could be heard as far away as Dublin and was believed to have killed more than 10,000 German soldiers. The Allies then advanced but also suffered many casualties of which Major was one. He was initially listed as 'Missing Presumed Killed'. It was later officially confirmed that he was killed in action on 7 June 17 at Verbranden Molen near Ypres, Belgium. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.
Additional Information
His mother received pay owing of £7 13s 8d and his brother Herbert received the £5 war gratuity.
He gave his brother Herbert as next of kin on enlistment form. Probate was granted to his brother Herbert Pain on 7 June 1919 with effects of £294 6s 9d. (this was revoked on 27 January 1920).
N.B. the surname of Pain is sometimes mistakenly spelt with an 'e'.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar,org., www.hemelheroes.com.
