Name
Herbert William Blain
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/10/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2058
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
44th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NINE ELMS BRITISH CEMETERY
Plot 7, Row A, Grave 18
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
THY WILL BE DONE
UK & Other Memorials
Codicote Village Memorial, Peace Memorial Hall, Codicote, Not on the Knebworth memorials(*1)
Pre War
Herbert William Blain was born in 1891 in Knebworth(*1), Herts to Arthur William and Harriett Blain (nee Titmuss).
On the 1901 Census the family were living in High Street, Codicote, where his father was a butcher. Herbert was educated at Codicote National School.
He emigrated, with his brother Francis, to Albany, Australia, on 13 October 1910 on the P&O ship Geelong and lived at Mt Arrowsmith, Bruce Rock, Perth, Australia and worked as a farmer.
His parents later lived at Heath Cottage, Codicote.
Wartime Service
Herbert enlisted at Bruce Rock, Perth, Western Australia in March 1916 and joined the Australian Imperial Force on the 1st of May together with his brother Francis. He left Fremantle, Australia on 10 October 1916 on the A23 Suffolk, and arrived at Plymouth, England on 2 December 1916. He then left Folkestone on the Princess Victoria en route to France on 20 December 1916, eventually joining the 44th Battalion in the field on 26 January 1917.
He suffered from trench foot and blistered toes early in 1917.
Herbert died on 28 October 1917, aged 26, from wounds to the chest, received at Passchendaele, which was confirmed to his parents in a letter from the Sister of the C.C.S., which they received shortly after a letter from Herbert himself. In his letter he told his parents that he had been wounded on the 16th of October and asked them not to worry, according to an article in the Hertfordshire Express of the 10th of November 1918.
He is buried at Nine Elms British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
*1 Recorded as born in Knebworth, but is not clear whether this was ‘Old’ or ‘New’ Knebworth or indeed perhaps recorded as the nearest 'large' town to Codicote. Brother of Francis James Blain also named on the memorial. At the time of his death a younger brother was serving with the Forces in Mesopotamia, according to the Hertfordshire Express.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, June Colegrove, Roll-of-Honour.com
