Name
William Cecil Collins
1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/11/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
16403
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ROMERIES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
V. A. 2.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Boxmoor memorials
Pre War
William Cecil Collins was born in 1895 in Fleet Marston, Bucks, the son of William and Elizabeth Collins, and baptised on 2 June 1895 at Marston-Fleet, Bucks. He was the eldest of three children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 181 High Street, Great Berkhamsted and his father was working as a Coachman (domestic).
By 1911 the family had moved to Ashlyns Laundry, Great Berkhamsted at which time William was a Domestic Learning Chauffeur, probably being taught by his father who was a Domestic Chauffeur.
The CWGC records William as from Boxmoor.
Wartime Service
William enlisted in Watford and served with the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment in France from 30 August 1915, arriving in time for the Battle of Loos in September.
The Battalion were engaged in the Battles of the Somme in 1916 and the Battles of Ypres in 1917, including the assault on St Julien, when the Battalion lost over 450 men. In 1918 they were again fighting in the Battles of the Somme, but sadly having survived so much of the war, he died of wounds on 4 November 1918, sustained in the final advance in Picardy - the Battle of the Sambre.
He is buried at Romereries Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £19 and pay owing of £16 11s 9d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelatwar.org. www.hemelheroes.com.
