Name
Harold Walter Cain
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/11/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
265748
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BEDFORD HOUSE CEMETERY
Enclosure No.4 II. F. 8.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Great Offley Village Memorial, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Harold Walter Cain was born in Offley in 1896, the son of Sarah Cain.
On the 1901 Census, 4 year old Harold was living with grandparents Samuel and Emma Cain and fellow grandson Arthur White, at Hoo Cottages, Offley, where his grandfather was working as an agricultural labourer. His grandmother died in late 1901 and in 1911 he was living with his widowed grandfather and Arthur White at Hoo Cottages. He was still living there when he enlisted in Hatfield in September 1914 and was then working as a labourer. He gave his religion as Wesleyan.
Wartime Service
Harold enlisted in Hatfield on 8 September 1914, having been in the territorial force of the Hertfordshire Regiment, serving as Private 2939 in G Company. He was sent to France with the Hertfordshire Regiment embarking from Southampton 23 Jan 1915 but soon fell ill with influenza and was admitted to No. 4 Field Ambulance Ambulance in February 1915, then to No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station at Choques, followed by No. 13 Stationary Hospital, Rouen on 8 March. He recovered and re-joined his battalion on 13 March 1915.
In early February 1916 he was wounded in the field with a gunshot wound to the face and sent via a Field Ambulance and Casualty Clearing Station to the Stationary Hospital in St Omer, eventually re-joining his battalion in the field on 17 February 1916.
Later the same year, in early August, he was again wounded with gunshot wounds to the arms and head and was eventually repatriated to hospital in England on 8 August 1916. Upon his recovery he was examined on 15 September 1916 and considered fit for light duty within three months.
Before being returned to France he was allotted the new regimental number 265746. He left from Folkestone on 21 March 1917 and arrived in Boulogne the same day, joining the battalion in the field on 11 April 1917.
He died near Ypres on 16 November 1917, when he was working in a newly constructed cookhouse which was in the forward area. On the first occasion of lighting a fire an explosion took place which was believed to have been caused by an unexploded bomb or shell in the hearth. He received severe wounds to the face and was described as having been accidentally killed, rather than killed in action.
The Hertfordshire Express reported on the 8th of December 1917:
"OFFLEY'S ELEVENTH LOSS
Served with the Herts. Regiment
News has been received by the parents of Private Harold Cain, Herts. Regiment, of Offley, that this soldier has been killed accidentally. Private Cain had seen considerable service in France, being one of the Volunteer Army. He is the eleventh Offley man to pay the supreme sacrifice. He had lived since boyhood with his grandfather, Mr. Samuel Cain, Angel Farm cottages, and worked for Mr. Fred Foster, carpenter, etc."
Harold is buried in Bedford House Cemetery, south of Ypres, Belgium.
Additional Information
His grandfather received a war gratuity of £14 10s and pay owing of £13 and gave his address as 3 Angel Cottages, Offley, Hitchin. No pension appears to have been payable.
Harold's mother married George Head in 1900 in and lived in Upper Norwood, Surrey. She had two more children, Ivy and Frederick.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Dunne, Jonty Wild
