Name
Henry Alexander Foster
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
39909
Royal Army Medical Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Henry Foster was born in the autumn of 1881 at North Aylesford, Northfleet, near Gravesend in Kent. In the 1891 Census he was recorded as Harry Foster, but elsewhere in the records his first name was recorded as Henry. He was one of seven children born to George and Margaret Foster.
Margaret was born on a remote island called Saint Helena in the middle of the Atlantic sea as was her mother and her grandmother was a freed slave on the island.
At the time of the 1891 Census George was listed as a Navy Pensioner, Margaret worked as a Laundress, and the family lived at Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
By the 1901 Census Henry had left the family home and worked as a Laundryman at Hampstead, North London, and in the winter of 1904 he married Nellie (Ellen) Crowsley. Between 1905 and 1911 the couple had four children and the 1911 Census showed that the family lived at 24 Asylum Cottages at Abbots Langley. Henry was employed as an Asylum Attendant (Insane) by the Metropolitan Asylum Board, at Leavesden Asylum.
The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour first listed Henry in October 1914, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), and recorded his service throughout the War.
Henry’s Medal Roll recorded that he arrived in France on 19th July 1915. He was listed in the Autumn 1918 and Spring 1919 Absent Voter Records, serving at the 2nd General Hospital (in France) as a Sergeant with the RAMC, and living at 24 Tanners Hill, Abbots Langley. It is assumed that this is the same address as his pre-war dwelling at 24 Asylum Cottages.
The Medal Roll noted that Henry was demobilised on 21st January 1919.
Henry Foster survived and returned to Abbots Langley, but died in 1929. It is believed that he fell in front of a steam train. Nellie (Ellen) his widow died in December 1936 in Hemel Hempstead. They had nine children.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org, Della Foster (Great Granddaughter)
