Name
William Hugh Byam Shervington
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/07/1916
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Bedfordshire Regiment
9th Bn., attached 6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour,
St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey,
Dunstable Grammar School WW1 Memorial
Pre War
William Hugh Byam Shervinton, was born in 1890, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the younger son of Laura (nee Munro) and Colonel Charles Robert St Leger Shervinton (1823-1893), a soldier of fortune, who commanded the Malagasy Army in its anti-French campaign of 1895.
His parents married 18 April 1882 in Durban, Natal, South Africa. Charles died 19 April 1898 in St James’, London, aged 45. He committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver, during a fit of temporary insanity. Laura died 16 November 1931 in Broadstairs aged 70.
1891 it is assumed William and the family were still living in Madagascar.
1901 Census records William aged 11, living with his widowed mother and his four siblings at 2, Regents Street, Dunstable, Beds. The family had a live-in Domestic Servant.
William attended Dunstable Grammar School.
1911 Census no trace of William or the family was found.
William had four siblings, Isabel (Born 1884), Thomas (B 1887), Charles (B 1890) and Laura (B 1893).
Wartime Service
William Shervinton enlisted at Woolwich, London on 2nd September 1914, with the 8th Reserve Cavalry Regiment. He was recorded as a cattle rancher [sic] aged 25, 5’8″ tall, next-of-kin his mother of Oxhey, Herts.
He served at Home 2 September 1914 to 15 March 1915. He then joined the 17th Lancers of the Line, with the service number 7202 serving with them until 15th March 1915 when he was discharged and Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant to the 9th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, joining then on 20th March 1915.
He was posted to the 6th Battalion on 4th March 1916, arriving in France on 13th March 1916, he arriving at the front on 27th March 1916. William was Killed in Action on 15th July 1916, according to the Battalion War Diary, the CWGC record it as the 18th July 1916, during an attack on Pozieres, which was part of the Battle of the Somme. He was aged 26, and is remembered with honour on Thiepval Memorial. Pier & Face 2C.
Extract from the Battalion War Diary:
15th July 1916. [The Battle of the Somme – the Battle of Bazentin Ridge] Attack on Pozieres by 112th Bde. From trenches S. of CONTALMAISON, Bde. Held up by hostile machine guns, established itself about 100yds from Lisiere [comment; 200 yards south of the Poziers village boundary] & dug in. Casualties (3 Offs Killed, 32 O.R Killed) (25 missing) (9 Offrs Wounded, 174 O.R. Wounded). [Comment; the 34th Divisional History records 330 casualties for the battle today, once the final reckoning was concluded].
He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals, and was killed in action on 15 July 1916 in the front line near Maricourt, when the Battalion cookhouse was shelled.
CWGC record his date of Death as 18th July 1916. Battalion War Diary the 15th July 1916.
Additional Information
Some records have his name spelt Shervington.
The value of his effects were £77-16s-7d, which was split between his mother Laura and his two sisters Isabel and Laura.
His elder brother Thomas Robert Munro Shervinton was killed in action on 25th/26th September 1915. Both are commemorated on the St Matthew’s Church memorial in Oxhey. William’s mother, Mrs Laura Shervinton, lived for a time at 67 Kingsfield Road, Oxhey. Later moving to Broadstairs, Kent, living at “Claremont”, King Edward Avenue, were she died in November 1931. Son of Laura Shervinton, of "Claremont", King Edward Avenue, Broadstairs, and the late Col. St. Leger Shervinton.
Additional information provided with kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
