Name
Herbert Charles (poss ) Paveley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/09/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
79280
Royal Fusiliers *1
11th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
STE. MARIE CEMETERY, LE HAVRE
Div. 62, V. B. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
High Wych Memorial, Not on the Sawbridgeworth memorials
Pre War
Herbert was born in Sawbridgeworth in 1899 or 1900, the son of Arthur, a nursery gardener and his wife Bessie of Hand Terrace and the younger brother of Frederick Arthur.
It is possible that mother Bessie died giving birth to him as by 1901 his mother had died and the census records Arthur as a widower. Both sons and their father is listed as in a housekeeper, Mary Ann Howe.
Prior to enlistment, Herbert worked as a ‘Clerk’ at J.E Taylor & Co. Ltd.
The family most probably worshipped at the Congregational Church Sawbridgeworth from whose archives the photograph comes.
Wartime Service
Records show Herbert Paveley as a Private, but the photograph of him here shows him in a Lance Corporal uniform - there may be an interesting story behind that?
Herbert would have been too young to take part in the earlier stages of the war and it is perhaps more likely to have been conscripted. Initially he joined a training reserve battalion (TR). Later he was transferred to the 11th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment).
He was stationed in Northern France and in August 1918 was involved in the hundred day offensive which lead through the breaking of the Hindenburg line. Herbert's Battalion was involved in the Second Battle of Bapaume. Herbert’s record states that he “died of wounds” and it may have been in this battle that he was wounded. He was buried in the Sainte Marie Cemetery near le Havre and this shows that survived long enough to be transported to a hospital near Le Havre, where he awaited evacuation to Britain. He was aged 18.
Additional Information
Herbert’s brother Frederick also died in the war. Although the CWGC’s records do not give a headstone inscription they do record an address for his father, which would have been recorded after Fredericks death, this was Hand Terrace, Sawbridgeworth, Herts.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London) Bn. London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles).
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Theo van de Bilt, Congregational Church Sawbridgeworth, Douglas Coe
