Name
Norman Short
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/03/1916
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
882
Royal Fusiliers *1
8th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VERMELLES BRITISH CEMETERY
II. L. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial,
St. Peter’s Church Memorial, Mill End,
St. Peter's C & E Primary School Memorial, Mill End
Pre War
Norman was born in Rickmansworth on 19 October 1894 and baptised at West Hyde on 26 January 1895.
In 1901 Norman lived with his parents, William (b. Chalfont, Buckinghamshire) and Alice (b. Lydbrook, Gloucestershire) and six siblings in Church Lane, Rickmansworth. Children were born variously in Harefield, West Hyde and Rickmansworth. His father, William, was a labourer in a brewery and his older brothers, Edward and Harvey, were a domestic gardener and an agricultural labourer. In 1911 the family was still living in Church Lane at 1 Pretoria Cottages. William was still labouring in a brewery and Norman's brothers were labourers in various industries while one of his sisters was a laundress and the other a domestic servant. Norman worked as a watch maker for Ingersolls.
Two of his brothers, Albert and Percy, were also killed in the war.
Recorded as enlisting in Marylebone, London.
Wartime Service
He entered service in France on 1st June 1915. 8th Battalion Royal Fusiliers was part of 36th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division.
In late September and early October 1915 the Division was engaged in the battle of Loos. They remained in this area of the front in early 1916 and 36th Brigade was involved in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt in early March. This was followed by heavy fighting and Private Short was killed in action on 18th March 1916.
He is buried at Vermelles, between Lens and La Bassée.
Additional Information
Brother of Private Percy Short who was killed in action on 18 Apr 1918 and of Private Albert Ernest Short who was killed in action on 13 Nov 1916 and all commemorated on this memorial.
*1 More correctly (City of London) Bn. London
Regiment (Post Office Rifles).
A more complete biography for the Short brothers can be found at www.hertsatwar.co.uk/archive/hertfordshire-men-women-individuals-stories/short-brothers-their-story.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Green U3A, Brian Thomson, Gary Short
