Name
Horace Collier
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/05/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36288
Royal Berkshire Regiment
2nd/4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AIRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
II. K. 45.
France
Headstone Inscription
GONE FROM US BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Horace Collier was born in 1890 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the youngest son of Charles and Eliza Collier, and one of nine children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 92 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Bricklayer's Labourer. By 1901 they had moved to 109 Cotterells Road, Hemel Hempstead when his father was working as Bricklayer and Horace was a scholar.
When Horace left school in 1903 he worked at G B Kent at their brush factory in Apsley where his brother Bertie worked. They family remained living in Cotterells in 1911 but had moved to No. 14, and although Horace was listed as a box maker in the brush factory, it was noted that both he and his brother Bertie, who was listed as brush maker, were out of work at the time.
(N.B. Horace is not listed on G B Kent war memorial which assumes he was not working at the factory on enlistment)
Wartime Service
Horace enlisted in Hertford in October 1915 and served with the Hertfordshire Regiment, (reg. no. 5634). After basic training he was sent to France and would probably have joined the 1st Battalion in April 1916 near Vielle Chapelle.
He fought in the Battle of Ancre Heights and the Battle of Ancre in October and November and later the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment moved to Belgium and were positioned near to Ypres at Canal Bank.
Horace was again in action in July 1917 at Pilckem Ridge, during the Battle of Ypres, and again at Menin Road and Polygon Wood. He was gassed during the Battle of Passchendaele in September or October and was invalided home to recover. He returned to the front in January 1918 when he was posted to the 6th Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales' (Royal Berkshire) Regiment, and shortly after to the 2/4th Battalion, joining them on 21 February 1918.
In late May the Battalion was near Saint-Venant and came under artillery attack in which 23 men were killed or wounded. Horace was one those and was seriously wounded in the abdomen. He died of his wounds on 30 May 1918, aged 30, probably at the 54th Casualty Clearing Station which was situated at Aire at the time, and he is buried at Aire Communal Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs E Collier, 117 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "GONE FROM US BUT NOT FORGOTTEN". His mother received a war gratuity of £12 and pay owing of £7 11sd 7d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week. His brother Frank served with the Labour Corps during the war and was injured twice. He suffered a skull fracture when a truck carrying shells overturned and trapped him, but he survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com.
