Name
Bernard Stebbeds
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/06/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
T4/037850
Army Service Corps
3rd Base H.T. Depot (Salonika)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATBY MEMORIAL
Egypt
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath
Pre War
Born in Harleston, Norfolk on 8 June 1891 and baptised on 26 July 1891 at Denton, Bernard Thomas Stebbeds was the youngest son of Alfred and Mary Jane (nee Collen) Stebbeds. The baptism record gave the trade of Alfred as coachman. Bernard’s parents were married in the last quarter of 1882 in the registration district of Ely.
At the 1891 census, 35-year-old Alfred, a coachman, and 30-year-old Mary were living in Wall Lane, Denton in Norfolk. They had three children, named Hettie, Ethel and Alfred Collin, who were 7, 6 and 4 years old respectively. Both girls were at school. Birthplaces were given as Mildenhall in Suffolk for Alfred, Littleport in Cambridgeshire for Mary, Mepal (near Ely) in Cambridgeshire for the two girls and Great Bealings in Suffolk for Alfred Collin.
By the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to the High Street in Wootton, Northamptonshire. Ethel was not present, but Hettie and Alfred (Jnr.) now had two younger siblings, nine-year-old Bernard and seven-year-old Florence. Alfred (Snr.) is still working as a domestic coachman, Hettie is a dressmaker (working on her own account) and Alfred (Jnr.) is a domestic stable boy. The birthplaces for Alfred and Mary were now given as Holywell (which is close to Mildenhall) in Suffolk and Southery (which is close to Littleport) in Norfolk. Those for Hettie, Bernard and Florence are Great Bealings in Suffolk, Denton in Norfolk and Sutton Bonington in Nottinghamshire.
Bernard’s parents and two of the daughters, Ethel and Florence, moved to Bushey Heath in the early 1900s, and by the time of the 1911 census were living at The Cottage, Two Oaks on Elstree Road in Bushey (which stood opposite Caldecote Towers/later Rosary Priory). Alfred was still working as a domestic coachman, Ethel as a domestic cook and Florence as an assistant dressmaker. Bernard had moved out of the family home and was recorded in the Ireland Census of 1911 as one of six domestic servants at the Willcox home (an American family) at 6 Ballinafad, Bencorr in County Galway. He was a valet.
Wartime Service
Bernard returned to England when war was declared and enlisted in London on 14 January 1915 with the Army Service Corps. They supplied most of the food, equipment and ammunition required by the vast British army fighting on many fronts. Bernard was 24 years old and working a Valet. His medical recorded a height of 5 feet 4½ inches and a chest size of 33 ½ inches with a 2½ inch range of expansion. He gave his address as The Cottage, Two Oaks in Bushey, but this was subsequently crossed through and replaced with 56 Finchley Lane in Hendon.
Bernard served at Home from 14 January 1915 to 16 March 1915. He was posted with 29th Division of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, which served in Gallipoli throughout the duration of the ill-fated campaign. Bernard embarked at Avonmouth on 17 March 1915 and disembarked at Alexandria on 28 March 1915. He was admitted to hospital in Gallipoli on 16 August 1915 with a gunshot wound to his right leg and was transferred by ship to hospital in Malta where he was admitted on 27 August 1915. He was invalided to England on 2 September 1915 aboard the ‘Regina de Italia’ and was later treated at Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot between 4 and 14 December 1915.
He remained on Home service from 8 November 1915 to 25 September 16, before being embarked at Devonport on 26 September 1916 and arriving at Salonika on 5 October 1916. He joined the 84th Brigade on 22 October 1916 and served as Driver T4/037850 with the Army Service Corps.
Whilst taking mail and a consignment of mules from Suda Bay to Alexandria on the HT Cameronian, the ship was torpedoed in the early hours of 2 June 1917 by the German U boat UC 34. It took a direct hit, exploded and sank in 5 minutes with the loss of 43 officers and men. He was entitled to the British, Victory and 14/15 Star medals.
Bernard is commemorated on The Chatby Memorial in Alexandria, at St Peter’s Church in Bushey Heath and on the Bushey war memorial on Clay Hill.
The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects shows payments to his father and administrator of £111 6s. 10d. and to his father and Albert of £10 10s.
There is an entry for Bernard in the National Probate Calendar for 1918 which reads: ”STEBBEDS Bernard Thomas of 56 Finchley Lane Hendon Middlesex driver A.S.C. died 2 June 1917 at sea Administration London 7 March to Alfred Stebbeds coachman. Effects £111 6s. 10d.”
Alfred died, aged 69, in 1926 and Mary died, aged 75, in 1936, both deaths being recorded in the registration district of Hendon.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Jonty Wild
