Name
Joseph Spicer
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/09/1916
34 years
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
14320
Royal Field Artillery
63rd Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY
XXI. P. 45.
Iraq
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock, All Saints Church Memorial, Radwell, Not on the Hitchin memorials
Pre War
Joseph Spicer was born in 1882 in Baldock, Hertfordshire (in the Hitchin registration district) and baptised on 26 February 1882 in Baldock. He was the son of Joseph and Annie Spicer (née James), who had married in 1878.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Park Street, Baldock, where his father was working as a brewer’s cellarman. Joseph was then aged 9 with elder brother George aged 10.
His father died in 1895 and was buried in Baldock on 31 August. Following his death and by 1901 the family had split up; Anne (43) was living in Park Street, Baldock with niece Alice Worby (12). His brother George was boarding with the Castle family at 4 Midland Cottages, Wellingborough, Northants. and working as an engine cleaner,
Joseph had probably enlisted into the army by the 1901 Census and served with the 63rd Battery, Royal Field Artillery, under the same service number as in WW1. The medal rolls show that he was entitled to the South Africa medal for 1902 (having served any time between 1 January 1902 and 31 May 1902) with clasps for action in Cape Colony and Orange Free State, but not for 1901.
He married Alice Maud Carter (b 1/3/1885) in in 1909, but she has not been found in the 1911 census, and they had a son, Cecil Norman who was born in 1912. Joseph was recorded on the 1911 Census as a corporal serving with the 63rd Battery Royal Field Artillery at Meerut, India.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of the war, Joseph was serving with the British Army in India. He landed in Mesopotamia (then part of the Ottoman Empire) on the 11 November 1914, with the 63rd Battery, Royal Field Artillery, as part of the British and Indian Force sent to protect the Arabian Oil Fields. This was initially successful, but eventually the British and Indian Forces were outnumbered by a larger Turkish Force, both sides suffering heavy casualties in the fighting.
By December 1915 the British Forces, under the command of Major-General Townsend, retreated to Kut-al-Amarah on the banks of the River Tigris. The British and Indian Troops were then surrounded by a much larger Turkish Force. The British and Indian Troops held out for nearly five months, then on 29th April 1916, with no supplies Major-General Townsend surrendered his force of about 10,000 men to the 80,000 strong Turkish Army.
Joseph was one of those taken prisoner and many suffered terribly, some 4,000 of these troops died on the march to Turkish Prison Camps or while in the Prison Camps. Joseph died of enteritis while a prisoner of war in Turkey, aged 34. He is buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq.
N.B. Joseph was Mentioned in Dispatches. The recommendation was by Major-General Charles Townsend, for “Distinguished Service during the Defence of Kut-al-Amarah, 7th December 1915 to 29th April 1916”. The MID was published in the London Gazette on 17th October 1916.
Additional Information
The SDITGW database records Joseph as born in Hitchin, Herts, but all other records found record Baldock, however this is because the registration district of Hitchin from 1837 covered many areas of Hertfordshire, including Baldock until changes were made in the 20th century, some as late as 1996.
At the time of his death, and possibly for much of his service, his wife was living with her parents at 9 Park Street, Baldock.
His widow received two war gratuities totalling £15 and pay owing of £18 18s 9d.
His pension records are more complicated that usual; first Ann Spicer of 9 Park Street, Baldock as his mother and dependant, she was awarded a pension of 12s 6d a week from 22 September 1917 to 14 January 1919. This appears to have been superseded by the award to his widow, Alice Maud Spicer. of a £5 grant on 23 October 1917 and then a pension of 26s 8d from 20 January 1919 for her and their child, Cecil Norman (b 22/3/1912). This was awarded c/o Mrs Carter, Radwell, near Baldock – probably Alice’s mother. Later addresses for his mother were Primrose Lane, Baldock and 9 Park Street, Baldock.
By 1939 Alice was living in Rose Cottage, Hitchin, with her son Cecil who was a motor bus driver.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Stuart Osborne
