Name
Robert Alfred Quatermass
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/09/1916
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
16427
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th 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
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead
Pre War
Robert Alfred Quatermass was born in 1889 in Hemel Hempstead, the son of John and Henrietta Quatermass and one of eight children although three died in infancy and 12 year old Kathleen was murdered in 1896, an event which made national news.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Bods End, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Dealer (Shop).They remained in Hemel Hempstead at Bods End Farm on the 1901 Census when his father is described was a Greengrocer and Fruiterer. In 1911 Robert was working as a labourer and remained living at home at Bods End Farm with his family.
He married Mary Louisa Foskett at Great Berkhamsted, Herts on 23 November 1913. They had a daughter Marguerite born on 13 December 1914 and lived at 56 High Street, Berkhamsted, Herts.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford in 1914 and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, being posted to the 7th Battalion, and sent to Warminster, Wiltshire for basic training. He was eventually mobilised and sent to France on 18 August 1915, initially as a Lance Corporal and later as a Corporal.
He saw his first major action in the Battle of Albert on the Somme in July 1916, followed by the Battle of Bazentin and the Battle of Delville Wood.
Robert then fought in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge in late September. He survived the first day of the Battle but was killed in action the following day, on 28 September 1916, during an attack on the Schwaben Redoubt near Thiepval. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Belgium. He is one of 19 from the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment named on the memorial to die on the same day.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £9 10s and pay owing of £5 16s 6d. She also received a pension of £1 a week for herself and her daughter. Robert's surname at birth registration, marriage registration and census returns was Quatermass but is spelled Quartermass on all army records.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.,org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com
