Name
Aubrey James Farnham
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/10/1916
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
34174
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
98th Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier & Face 5C & 12C.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial, Waterford Village War Memorial, Roll of Honour, St Michael’s & All Angels Church, Waterford, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Aubrey was born on the 12th March 1899, in Waterford, Herts. The son of George John Farnham and Marianna Farnham (nee Jeans).
He was one of 8 children. Aubrey was Baptised on the 30th April 1899, in Bengeo, Herts. The 1901 census records Aubrey aged 2, living in Waterford, Herts, with his parents, 4 sisters and brother and in 1911 as aged 12, at school, living with his parents, sister Elsie 10 and brother Wilfred 6, in Waterford, Herts.
Wartime Service
Aubrey enlisted in Hertford, joining the 2nd/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment Territorial Force on the 5th September 1914, with the service number 2825. He gave his age as 17 years 6 months, (his actual age was 15 years 6 months).
His service record shows he served at home from the 5th September 1914 to the 4th May 1916, when he was discharged from the Territorial Force to join the regular Army. Joining the Machin Gun Corps in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in June 1916, with the service number 34174.
His Medal Card shows he embarked for France on the 10th June 1916. Aubrey was Killed in Action on the 25th October 1916. During the capture of Dewport and Boritska trenches, part of the Battle of the Somme.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.
Additional Information
The CWGC records him as the “Son of Mary Farnham, of Waterford, Hertford, and the late George Farnham”.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Stuart Osborne, Jonty Wild
