Name
Wortham Pearmain
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/08/1918
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
SE/20391
Army Veterinary Corps
5th Veterinary Hospital
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ABBEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
IV. D. 2.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (book), Hitchin
Pre War
Wortham was a single man, but was engaged to be married to a Miss Spicer. He was the eldest son of Mr A.E. Pearmain and their home was at 20, Kings Road, Hitchin.
Before joining the army he worked for the Great Northern Railway in Hitchin. He had been born in Bassingbourn and enlisted in Hitchin.
Wartime Service
His Regimental Number was SE/20391 and he served as a Gunner in the Artillery for two years before transferring to the 5th Veterinary Hospital of the A.V.C.
Caring for the tens of thousands of sick and injured horses must have been one of the most stressful tasks that soldiers had to perform. In the famous book ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque describing the screams of wounded horses, “Deterring walks up and down cursing.” “Like to know what harm they've done”. He returns to it once again. His voice is agitated, it sounds almost dignified as he says "I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war.”
He died of an intestinal illness at No. I South African General Hospital, Abbeville, France and was buried in Plot 4, Row D, Grave 2 in the Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
