Name
Harry Toms
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/07/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private/Pioneer
142375
Royal Engineers
Hitchin Signal Depot
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HITCHIN CEMETERY
Plot N, Grave 807.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Post Office Memorial, Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary’s Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
Son of Tom and Ellen (nee DAY) TOMS; husband of Florence Beatrice (nee SIMPSON) TOMS.
His parents married 18 May 1975 at Holy Saviour, Hitchin. Tom possibly died 1886 in the Strand, London, district aged 36; Ellen died 1938 in the Hitchin district aged 87.
Harry was born 1875 in Newbury, Berks, and married 11 December 1916 in Hitchin; they had one child.
On the 1881 Census, aged 5 he lived in Speen, Berks, with his parents and no siblings. On the 1891 Census, a printer’s apprentice aged 15, he lived in Hitchin, with his maternal grandfather. On the 1901 Census, a hay merchant’s clerk aged 25, he still lived in Hitchin, with his mother and no siblings. On the 1911 census, a hay dealer’s clerk aged 34, he was a visitor in Royston, Herts.
Wartime Service
He attested 22 November 1915 in Hitchin, Herts: a P O clerk aged 37, unmarried, of Hitchin; next-of-kin his mother of Hitchin.
He was attached to the Royal Engineers Signal Depot in Hitchin with the Corps Number 142375.
He appears to have no medals, and died at 1st Eastern Hospital, Cambridge, of cerebral spinal meningitis. He is buried in Grave N 807 in Hitchin Cemetery.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
