Name
Joseph Edward Bilby (*1)
1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
265340
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, We are not aware of any memorial in Piccotts End
Pre War
*1 we believe Joseph appears as J S Bilby on the John Dickinson memorial.
Joseph Edward Bilby (known as Edward) was born in Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts on 23 April 1895, the son of George and Jane Bilby.
He had two sisters Laura and Mabel six and a half-sibling Elizabeth Jane Wood from his mother's first marriage to Robert Wood.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 37 Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Milk Carman and his mother was a Sick Nurse.
He left school in 1909 and started work as a 'Paper Ruler' with John Dickinson & Co. (paper manufacturers), Apsley Mills, nr. Hemel Hempstead. (N.B. Not found on 1911 Census as some records believed to be damaged and missing.)
Pension records show the family later lived at 17 Chapel Street, Hemel Hempstead.
[His mother Jane married Robert Wood in 1884 and lived in Croydon. They had a daughter Elizabeth in 1887, but Robert died four years later, leaving her a widow on the 1891 Census, working as a Nurse at the West Herts Infirmary, Hemel Hempstead. Daughter Lizzie was with Jane's widowed mother Elizabeth Merridan, listed as visitors at the home of Alfred and Catherine Hunt (Jane's married sister) in Tylers Green, Wycombe, Bucks. ]
Wartime Service
Edward enlisted in Hemel Hempstead with the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment (a territorial force), in 1913, initially under reg. no. 2216. The battalion was at the Territorial Summer Camp at Ashridge Park, nr Berkhamsted, Herts when war was declared. They were embodied for war service on 5 August 1914 and trained in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk for two months. He was promoted to Corporal and served in France from 6 November 1914.
The battalion fought in the 1st Battle of Ypres and the following year in Cuinchy, Festubert and Loos. In 1916 he fought in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Ancre.
He was killed in action on 31 July 1917 , the opening day of the 3rd Battle of Ypres. That morning the 39th Division had achieved all its objectives with minimal casualties, including the capture of the first two German lines, including the village of St Julien. The Herts Regiment was to complete the advance from the River Steenbeek to capture the third German line. Although there was some success when No. 3 Company found a gap in the barbed wire, got into an enemy trench and killed a lot of Germans, the Regiment suffered increasing numbers of casualties from sniper and machine gun fire as they tried to advance and were unable to get through the barbed wire.
It was a very costly day for the Hertfordshire Regiment. Of the 620 officers and men who took part in the attack, all the officers were either killed or wounded and 459 other ranks were killed, wounded or captured, in the space of two hours.
Joseph has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. He is one of 121 soldiers from the Hertfordshire Regiment who died on the same day and are named on the Memorial.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £15 and pay owing of £7 11s 9d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week. A memorial to the Hertfordshire Regiment, unveiled in 2017, now stands in the fields outside St Julien dedicated to the officers and men of the 1st Battalion who fought in the Great War. Brother in law to William Batchelor (husband to his sister Lizzie) who died on .
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes,com, www.hemelatwar.org., www/dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.thebignote.com
