Name
Edward (Ted) Camp
28/10/1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/10/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
55043
Manchester Regiment
21st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TINCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
Plot VII, Row A, Grave 21.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no family inscription on his Headstone
UK & Other Memorials
Ashwell Village Memorial, St John the Baptist Church Memorial, Aldenham, St John the Baptist Church Roll of Honour, Aldenham, Letchmore Heath Village Memorial, Plaque on private house, Landor Cottages, 4 Back Lane, Letchmore Heath, Letchmore Heath(*1), Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Not on the Hertfordshire Yeomanry Memorial
Pre War
Edward (Ted) Camp was born on 28 October 1894, in Letchmore Heath, Herts, the son of Edward and Martha Camp (nee Beale). (N.B. His name was registered as Ted but was baptised as Edward). His parents had married on 26 June 1890 at St Martin’s Church, Kentish Town, Camden, London, although on the 1891 Census they were listed separately, with his mother as a cook for the Huggins family in Hampstead and his father working as a railway labourer living at 72 Quaker Street Buildings in Christchurch, Spitalfields, London.
By the 1901 Census, the family were living at 4, Lander Cottages, Letchmore Heath, Herts. Edward was then aged 6 and had two older sisters Emily and Phyllis and a younger brother Stanley. His father was working as a general labourer. His mother Martha died in 1906 and was buried on 8 December in the graveyard of St John the Baptist church, Aldenham, Herts. Edward (Ted) and his younger brother Stanley then went to live with his maternal uncle Isaac Beale, his wife Annie and their two children, in Station Road, Ashwell, Herts. Edward was baptised on 26 March 1909, at St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Herts, with his younger brother Stanley. They remained living with their uncle and aunt and on the 1911 Census were recorded living with them in Station Road, Ashwell, at which time Edward, then aged 16, was working as a poultry lad on a farm.
His widowed father remarried to Florence Hawes on 12 February 1911 at St Mary’s Church, Watford and they were recorded living in Letchmore Heath on the 1911 and 1921 Censuses. Florence died 1932 in Letchmore Heath aged 51 and his father died on 21 November 1945 in Letchmore Heath aged 85.
Wartime Service
Edward (Ted) enlisted at Hertford, Herts, and initially served with the Hertfordshire Yeomanry as Private 2778, and was later transferred to the Manchester Regiment as Private 55043, serving with the 21st Battalion.
He died on 9 October 1918, from wounds received in action and is buried in the Tincourt New British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His sole legatee, Elsie Mortimer, received a war gratuity of £13 10s and pay owing of £12 19s 0d. No pension records have been found.
Brother to Private 14076 Stanley Camp of the Bedfordshire Regiment who was killed in action on 18 May 1915.
*1 There is a plaque above the front door of his old house, Lander Cottages, Back Lane, Letchmore Heath, which reads “Lest we forget, STANLEY BEALE CAMP and TED CAMP LEFT THIS HOUSE TO FIGHT FOR THEIR KING & COUNTRY ON AUG 24TH 1914 & NOV 15TH 1915, THEY FELL IN ACTION IN FRANCE, STANLEY MAY 18TH 1915 AGED 18 YEARS, TED-OCT 9 1918, AGED 24 YEARS".
There is an article about Edward in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 26 October 1918.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk
