Name
Michael George Males
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
626743
Labour Corps
386 Home Service
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Michael appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served and he was born on June 23rd 1892 to Charles and Sarah Ann Males (née Chamberlain). So he would have been nineteen at the outbreak of war. In all it would appear that two brothers served and survived – refer to John Males for more family details.
In 1911, Michael was eighteen, still living in the family home at number 3 Holwell Road and earning a living as a boot repairer.
He is recorded in the September Parish Magazine of 1915 as enlisting during 1914, but after July, and serving in the 11th Middlesex Regiment. However, the Parish Magazine of June 1917 records him as serving in the East Surrey Regiment. In fact, both are true and this is confirmed by his certificate of discharge, which was provided by his grandson Alan Males. This also confirms that he enlisted on August 15th 1914 and that he served overseas, although confusingly gives a different date of birth (1894). At some point, he was transferred to the 386 HS (Home Service) Labour Corps and then, as Private 626743, he was discharged on March 28th 1919 as medical category B II. This medical category might have been the reason for his transfer and means that he was not deemed suitable for combatant service - probably due to a war injury or sickness.
In a letter home in December 1914, he confirmed his Regiment as the 11th Middlesex and lets his family know ‘I am getting on all right and hope to be at the Front soon with the boys.’
By 1918, he was recorded as Private 203318, 12th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, with his home address the same as his brother John’s, 3 Holwell Road.
Alan also provides other information. Within three months of his discharge, Michael married Elizabeth Maud Bethell at Marylebone Registry Office. Interestingly, Maud’s brother Thomas married Michael’s sister Sarah. After their marriage, Michael and Maud lived in Henlow, where he set up a business as a boot and shoe maker/repairer. Their daughter Phyllis was born in 1920 and their son Douglas in 1924, he sadly died in 1926 after an operation for cancer at the Whittington Hospital in London. Sadly, Michael died in 1926 and is buried in Henlow churchyard. Maud continued to live in Henlow until her death in 1964, aged seventy-three.
Additional Information
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission, Alan Males (grandson)
