Name
Herbert Joseph Stokes/Pike
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/16598
Royal Sussex Regiment
9th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 20.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial (*1), Diocese - Book of Remembrance, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Diocese of St Albans - ROH, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Royal Sussex Regiment WW 1 Panels within Chichester Cathedral
Pre War
Herbert Joseph Pike (*1) was born in late 1889, in Great Waltham, Essex, son of Herbert Oliver Stokes a Thatcher and Rose Elizabeth Stokes (nee Harris). His parents were married on 20th July 1888, at the Church of Saint John, Hackney, London.
Herbert Jr. was Baptised Herbert Joseph Stokes, on 2nd March 1890 at St Mary and St Lawrance, Great Waltham, Essex.
His father Herbert Oliver Stokes died on 22nd November 1895, in Chelmsford, Essex, aged 30.
1901 Census records Herbert Jr. aged 10, at school, he and his widowed mother Rose, are living with his widowed Grandmother Jane Harris a Beer House Keeper at 1 Randulph Terrace, Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex. His Uncle widower Thomas Quilter (58) was living with the family.
His mother remarried on 9th May 1903, at the Church of St Anne, St Anne’s Crescent, Wandsworth, London, to Alfred Edward Pike.
1911 Census for Herbert Jr. was not found. The 1911 Census for his mother Rose, records Rose married to Alfred Edward Pike they have two son’s Edward and Jack Ernest Pike both at school and living in Trinity Marsh Lane, Waltham Cross, Herts. His stepfather Alfred is recorded as an Assurance Agent.
Herbert Jr. was married in Brighton, Sussex, in the early part of 1915 to Eliza May Harris the daughter of Francis Harry and Rebeca Harris of Sawston, Cambs, the Register of marriages records him as Herbert Stokes.
Wartime Service
Herbert Jr. enlisted as Herbert Joseph Pike at Kensington, London, joining the Sussex Yeomanry a Territorial Unit with the service No. 3365, we are not sure if Herbert Jr. enlisted with Territorial Unit before the war. He was later transferred to the 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment with the service No. 16598.
Herbert Jr. saw action on the Western Front, he was Killed in Action on 13th April 1917, aged 27, during the Battle of Arras (Battle of Arras 9th April – 4th May 1917) he has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium, to the missing. Panel 20.
Additional Information
Eliza was awarded a grant of £3, on 15th June 1917, and a widow’s pension of 13s/9d a week from 29th October 1917, increased to 36s/8d, a week from 19th December 1918. The Pension record records Eliza living in Sawston, Cambs, when the Pension was issued.
His effects of £1-02s-03d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £4, went to his widow Eliza.
1921 Census records his mother Rose, stepfather Alfred Edward Pike, and his two half-brothers Edward (22) and Jake Ernest Pike (15) living at 2 Burleigh Road, Waltham Cross, Herts.
1921 Census for Eliza records her as Eliza May Pike Stokes a widow, employed as a Drapers Assistant, living at 9 Sayle Street, St Andrews Street, Cambridge.
Eliza remarried on 27th December 1921, in Sawston, Cambs, to Maurice Charles Edwards.
*1 Herbert Joseph Stokes served as Herbert Joseph and appears as H J Pike on the Cheshunt memorial and Herbert Joseph Pike in the St Albans Diocese records.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
