Name
Herbert Baines
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/09/1915
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/2641
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 95 to 97.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St. Peter’s Church Plaque, Holwell
Pre War
Son of Ralph and Eliza Baines, of Holwell, Hitchin, Herts. Occupation: Printer, apprenticed to Carling & Co. Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Enlisted on 9/9/1914 at Hitchin, Herts. Served in Flanders, Belgium and France.
*1 Alistair Riach's father in law, Jim Purfield served and knew Herbert and adds:
After Jim Purfield died in 1975, we found his daily diary from September 11th 1914, when he left Letchworth with Herbert Baines, through the training, travel across France and into battle at Loos. It is a compelling story, which we made into a talk which my wife and I have given to several groups. So everything that Jim Purfield recorded in his diary would have been shared with Herbert Baines.
In 2014 we went to France, and traced the long march the battalion took across to Loos. Herbert Baines name appears on the Loos memorial wall at Dud Corner Cemetery.
It must have been terribly heart breaking for Jim to have persuaded his friend to go with him, only for him to die so soon.
Additional Information
Time deferred. War gratuity of £3.10s paid to mother on 30/8/1919.
*1 Herbert's experience referred to can be found in Jim Purfield's biography held in the HAW Archive under Hertfordshire Men & Women - Individuals Stories.
Acknowledgments
Tony James
