Name
Lewis Arthur How (poss Howe)
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/11/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
41675
Suffolk Regiment
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 4
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead,
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor,
Marlowes Methodist Church, Marlowes,
We are not aware of any memorial in Piccotts End
Pre War
Lewis Arthur How was born in 1887 in Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of Henry and Eliza How. and baptised at St Paul's, Hemel Hempstead on 9 October 1891. He was the youngest of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 24 Austin's Place. Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Groom (Domestic Servant). By the 1901 Census, the family had moved to Crescent Road, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was a working as a Brewer's Drayman and Lewis was employed as a Telegraph Boy for the Post Office.
He married Ellen Elizabeth Stapleton in 1907 and on the 1911 Census they were living at 49 South Mill Road, Hemel Hempstead, where he was working as a Laundryman (at Peek's Laundry). They had 11 month old Leonard Stainton living with them who was described as a nurse child. (N.B. Leonard's mother had died in December 1910 and his father Edward Stainton was living and working in Ceylon as a tea planter).
They had a daughter Nancy Barbara in February 1917 and lived at 121 Cotterells, Hemel Hempstead.
His father died in 1915 aged 69.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Watford in December 1916 was posted to the Essex Regiment Territorial Force under reg. no. 401212. When he was sent to France he was transferred to the 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.
He would probably have arrived in France in early summer 1917, when he was assigned as a 'Servant' (often known as a Batman or Orderly) to 2nd Lieutenant F W Nadat. His duties would have included conveying orders, acting as a valet and driver. He also spent time in the trenches and training for the next major operation at Cambrai.
The offensive began on 20 November but the 12th Battalion were not involved until the third day with an attack on Bourlon Village. They encountered heavy machine gun fire from German positions, the attack was unsuccessful and they had to withdraw.
Lewis was one of the men killed in action at Cambrai on 24 November 1917, aged 30. Second Lt Nadat, whom he served as batman wrote a letter to Lewis's widow (reproduced in the local newspaper) describing how he was by his side "when a bullet struck him through the temple and he dropped without a sound". Although the letter also describes how they buried him, his body was not recovered or not identified at the end of the war, but his name is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £4 0s 8d. She also received a pension of £1 0s 5d a week for herself and her child.
After Lewis's death Ellen remarried in 1920 to Albert Edward Hobbs from Hemel Hempstead, who was 16 years her junior and they had a daughter, Olive.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com. www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org.
