Name
Stanley Picton
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
14515
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor,
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley
Pre War
Stanley Picton was born in 1890 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of Frederick and Mary Jane Picton and one of six children.
His mother died in early 1899 and on the 1901 Census his widowed father and family were living at 37 Cotterells Road, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, where his father was working as a Carpenter.
He left school in 1906 and started work at John Dickinson & Co. and remained working there until the outbreak of war.
By the time of the 1911 Census he and his brother Frederick were living with his elder sister Lily and her husband Walter Hicks at 1 Victoria Cottage, London Road, Two Waters, Hemel Hempstead and Stanley was working as a Blacksmith Striker.
He married Ellen Plested, who worked as a clerk at Dickinsons, in Hemel Hempstead on 27 December 1914 during home leave. They lived at 38 Cowper Road, Boxmoor, Herts. They had a daughter Alice Ellen born on 23 March 1915 and later lived in Anchor Lane.
Wartime Service
Stanley volunteered in August 1914 at Hertford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, being posted to the 4th Battalion at Felixstowe for basic training. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion and sent to France, arriving at le Havre on 21 April 1915, joining the Battalion at Estaires a few days later.
He first saw action at the Battle of Festubert in May 1915, followed by Givenchy in June and the Battle of Loos in September.
In June 1916 he fought in the Battle of Albert, the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme. He was killed in action on 11 July 1916, aged 26, when the battalion was involved in an attack at Trones Wood but found it was strongly held by the Germans, being full of trenches and dug outs, and they suffered heavy casualties.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France. He is one of 47 men from the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment named on the memorial who are believed to have died on the same day.
(N.B. The National Roll of the Great War suggests he took part in the Battle of Loos, Givenchy and Hill 60 and died in the 3rd Battle of Ypres, but army records suggest he had died before the 3rd Battle of Ypres took place.)
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £3 1a 9d. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week for herself and her daughter.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
