Name
Herbert George Sear
7 September 1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
F/1331
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
17th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 12 D and 13 B.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hemel Hempstead Memorial
Pre War
Herbert George Sear was born on 7 September 1881 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts the son of George and Sarah Sear, and baptised at St Paul's, Hemel Hempstead on 16 October 1881. On the 1891 Census the family were living at 68 Cotterells, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a House Painter.
By the 1901 Census he had moved away from home and was boarding with Albert and Florence Baron in Affleck Street, Clerkenwell, London where he was working as an Oilman's Assistant.
He was working as a Porter for the Great Western Railways at Paddington in 1904 earning 20 shillings a week which rose to 21 shillings in 1905 but was dismissed after attempting to leave the station with tobacco and confectionery, the property of the company, in December 1907. He had married Annie Clough on 8 August 1904 at the Register Office in Marylebone (a month before daughter Violet was born) and by the time of the 1911 Census they were living at East Street, Edgware Road, London with their four children, Violet, Herbert, Ernest and Winifred, in two rooms and Herbert was working as a window cleaner. They later had another daughter Gladys.
Wartime Service
Herbert enlisted on 26 March 1915 in Shepherds Bush, Middlesex and was approved as an unpaid Lance Corporation on 23 July 1915. He was promoted to Corporal on 6 August 1915 and posted with the 17th Battalion on 4 November 1915. He was promoted again to paid Lance Sergeant on 9 December but later reverted to Corporal at his own request. He was posted to the Expeditionary Force on 15 April 1916 and joined the Base Depot in Etaples, later joining the Battalion in the field on 22 April 1916.
He was killed in action on 27 July 1916 during the Battle of Delville Wood (Battle of the Somme) in France. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
Whilst a serving soldier his wife received a separation allowance of £1 3s 6d. When he died she received a war gratuity of £6 10s and pay owing of £4 4s 1d. She also received a pension of 25 shillings a week for herself and five children.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
