Name
Herbert Sharp
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/10/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
27821
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REGINA TRENCH CEMETERY, GRANDCOURT
IV. E. 29.
France
Headstone Inscription
Greater love hath no man than this
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
Herbert was the son of Arthur and Alice Sharp and the husband of Alice Sharp of 85, Queen Street, Hitchin and born in Hitchin.
Before the war worked at the Hitchin Gasworks. He both resided and enlisted in Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Herbert was already an experienced soldier when he enlisted and was given the Regimental Number 27821. He was killed in action by a shell fragment in France while serving with the 7th Battalion of the Regiment.
The Battalion was in the 54th Brigade and was in the line at Regina Trench about 3 miles north west of Thiepval at the date of his death. They had only returned to the line on the 23rd October having been out of the line for three weeks. Continuous rain and seas of mud prevented any attack and such trenches as there were, were continually bombarded. The trenches were so bad that the earth collapsed when attempts were made to dig. There were no dug-outs and all the sides of the trenches were blown in.
He was buried in Plot 4, Row E, Grave 29 in the Regina Trench Cemetery in France.
Additional Information
A private inscription on the headstone reads “Greater love hath no man than this”.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
