Name
Joseph Cushi Clarke
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/07/1916
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
18873
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DANTZIG ALLEY BRITISH CEMETERY, MAMETZ
VIII. M. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial,
St Andrew’s Church Roll of Honour, Hertford ,
St Andrew’s Church Memorial, Hertford,
Not on the Bengeo memorials,
Not on the Hertford memorials*1
Pre War
Born on 26th December 1886, in Bengeo, to parents William and Martha, he had two brothers and two sisters and in 1901 he was living at 73 Port Vale, Hertford, with his widowed mother and three siblings and he was employed as an errand boy.
By 1911 they were all living at 27 Bull Plain, Hertford, with his brother in law and his family, Joseph was now employed as a general labourer.
At the time of his death his brother William was living at 44 Hertingfordbury Road, Hertford.
He is recorded as born in Hertford, but that could be Bengeo and enlisting in Hertford.
Wartime Service
Enlisted in the ‘Shiney Seventh’ and after training was sent to France on 27th July 1915. They were stationed in trenches near Ribemont, from late August until mid-September when they moved to the Mametz-Fricourt area, where they stayed until the end of the year.
In 1916 they remained in the same area, until they undertook extra training for the beginning of the Somme campaign. The battalion took part in the opening days fighting, the Battle for Albert. They failed to take their objectives on the first day and further attacks followed, including action on the 8th July when Joseph was killed.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Terry & Glenis Collins
