Name
Maurice Thompson Barker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/09/1915
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Secretary
4577
British Red Cross Society
Attached to the Friend's Ambulance Unit
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ABBEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
II. D. 19.
France
Headstone Inscription
I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore. Rev. 1:18
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Stained Glass Window, Hitchin Boys Grammar School
Pre War
Maurice was born on the 31st August 1897 in Willesden, London. He was the only son of Frank and Lucy Barker.
In 1901 Frank and Lucy were living at 12 and 13 Sun Street, Hitchin, Frank was recorded as a tailor and an employer. They had a son Maurice Thompson, aged 3, and Barbara Mary, aged 9 months and who had been born in Hitchin.
As a young child Maurice attended Miss P. Sharpe's School in Bucklersbury for seven years. By the end of which his mother had died (1907). He attended the Hitchin Grammar School from 1908 to 1913.
In the 1911 census Frank was confirmed as a widower, still working as a tailor at 6 Tilehouse St, Hitchin. Maurice, now 13 was present as was Barbara, now 10.
On leaving Hitch Grammar School, Maurice went to Pitman's Metropolitan School and when he left joined the local Fire Service when men were in short supply due to the war.
As a Quaker, he felt unable to join the army, but instead devoted himself to the work of the British Red Cross with the Friend's Ambulance.
Wartime Service
He went to France early on 4 July 1915, as Secretary British Red Cross Society, Personnel Dept. Friends Ambulance Unit. He was allocated a service number 4577.
Whilst serving in France he was bitten by a mosquito. The wound became inflamed and had to be lanced but later he died of blood poisoning. This was almost certainly in No. 3 British Red Cross Society Hospital, known as the Friends Ambulance Hospital, which was operating in the area at that time. Permission could not be obtained to return his body to England and he was buried in a cemetery near where he had been stationed. This was Abbeville Communal Cemetery in France in Plot 2, Row D, Grave 19.
His gravestone shows him as a private soldier with the British Red Cross Society attached to the Friends Ambulance Unit and that he died on the 29th September 1915. A private inscription was requested by his father and his headstone reads "I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore. Rev. 1:18".
Additional Information
Maurice is also commemorated on his mothers' headstone in Hitchin Cemetery. His inscription reads:
ALSO OF MAURICE THOMSON
THE ONLY AND VERY DEARLY LOVED SON OF FRANK AND THE LATE LUCY BARKER
WHO PASSED AWAY IN FRANCE ON SEPT 290TH 1915. AGED 18 YEARS
(The inscription continues but cannot be read from the photographs we currently have)
THE ONLY AND VERY DEARLY LOVED SON OF FRANK AND THE LATE LUCY BARKER
WHO PASSED AWAY IN FRANCE ON SEPT 290TH 1915. AGED 18 YEARS
(The inscription continues but cannot be read from the photographs we currently have)
* Please note the layout of this cemetery and its extension is very confusing. Abbeville Communal Cemetery consist of a small, separated area with rows A to E (no obvious plot number - the French graves are allocated plot I (1) and II (2)), plus plots III (3), IV (4), V (5), VI (6) in the lower level of the larger cemetery area. The extension consists of plots I (1), II (2), III (3), IV (4), V (5), VI (6), VII (7) VIII (8) and IX (9) - the raised area of the larger area of cemetery with the CWGC building.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
