Name
Thomas Arthur Saville
9 September 1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/04/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33040
Essex Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial, Shenley Village Memorial, Bayford & Brickendon Memorial, St Mary’s Church, Bayford, We are not aware of any WW1 memorial in Brickendon
Pre War
Thomas Arthur Saville was born in 1890 in Brickendon, Hertfordshire, the son and eldest child of Arthur and Ellen Saville (nee Brown), and baptised on 1 October 1890 at Hertford. He was one of nine children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 10 Paradise Row, Brickendon, where his father was working as a woodman. They remained at the same address in 1901, but by 1911 Thomas was working as a gardener at Ridgehurst, Ridge, Shenley and living with other employees at The Bothy, Ridgehurst.
He married Lilian Ethel Vyse in early 1916 and they had two children, Thomas and Olive, however Thomas died soon after birth in 1916. Their child Olive Ethel was born on 13 April 1917 and their address was given on pension records as Cowley Hill Farm, Green Street, Shenley, Herts.
He had been employed as a gardener at Shenley Hill prior to enlistment.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at St Albans in July 1915 and initially served with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment (Reg. No. 22260), later being transferred to the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment.
According to a local newspaper report he had been wounded during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
He was initially listed as missing following fighting on 14 April 1917 at Monchy le Preux, France, and later confirmed as having been killed in action. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France. He is among 170 men from the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment named on the Arras Memorial, who died on 14 April 1917, with many more having been injured and 208 taken prisoner.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £8 and pay owing of £1 14s 4d. She also received a pension of 18s 9d a week for herself and their daughter Olive.
His younger brother Harry also enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment, in August 1914, but was discharged in January 1915 as unfit for military service because of flat feet.
Of the ten families living in Paradise Row, four lost a total of five sons in WW1 and all are listed on the Bayford and Brickendon memorial.
Acknowledgments
Taff Williams, Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, shenleyww1.wordpress.com, www.essexregiment.co.uk
