Name
Joseph Green
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1917
38
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
14457
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5
France
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
St. Mary’s Church Memorial, Rickmansworth
Pre War
Joseph was baptised in Rickmansworth on the 6th of February 1876 the son of Joseph, a Labourer, and Eliza (nee Holt) Green. In 1881 they were living Wharf Lane, Rickmansworth with five children.
In 1891 the family was in Rickmansworth High Street now with eight children and a Lodger, George Green. Joseph senior had become a Bricklayer, while Joseph junior age 16, was a General Labourer. 1901 found the family in West End Cottage, Rickmansworth High Street although Joseph junior was not with them. He has not been traced on the 1901 census but in 1911, now a Bricklayer's Labourer and still single, was back with his parents and three siblings in West End Cottage.
Recorded as enlisting in Hertford.
Wartime Service
The 6th Beds were in action at the second Battle of the Scarpe on 23rd and 24th of April 1917, and again at the Battle of Arras on the 28th when they began an assault on Greenland Hill, a long incline between Gavrelle and Roeux. They almost reached their objective but then encountered heavy enfilading fire from the chemical works near Etree-Wamin.
Joseph was presumed to have died between the 23rd and the 29th. When the Battalion came out on the 29th just 58 men remained.
Fellow Rickmansworth men, privates Arthur Austin and Edwin Baldwin, died during the same series of actions.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Tanya Britton, Mike Collins
