Name
Herbert Hiskett
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
33188
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I. T. 39
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Albans Citizens Memorial, Town Hall (old) Memorial, St Albans, Tabanacle Baptist Church, St Albans, St Albans School Memorial
Pre War
Educated at St Albans School.
Address given as 27 Lattimore Road, St Albans.
Wartime Service
Killed in action.
Biography
Herbert Hiskett was born in 1897 in St Albans the youngest
of five sons to William Henry (B: 1860) and Emma (B: 1858) (nee Thody). In 1901
the family are living at 27 Lattimore Road, St Albans. Father is a
self-employed bootmaker. Herbert lives with his brothers William Robert 15,
Robert 13, Charles,11 and Frank, 9. There is an older sister Emily
Elizabeth who, in 1901, is living with her aunt, Violet Hiskett, in Spencer
Street.
The family are still living at 27 Lattimore Road at the 1911.
The Hiskett family were very active within the St Albans Tabanacle Church in the
first 25 years of the twentieth century. Herbert was a
Herbert enlisted in 1916 in St Albans. At his death he is a
Lance Corporal 33188 in the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He
is killed in action 21st July 1917. He is buried in the Philosophe British
Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France.
Newspaper report of the Herts Advertiser 11th March 1916
says:
Lance-Corpl H Hiskett
Bad News for a St Albans family
Mr and Mrs William Hiskett, 27 Lattimore Road, St Albans,
received official news on Tuesday that their fifth and youngest son,
Lance-Corpl Herbert Hiskett aged 20 of the Bedfordshire Regiment was killed in
action last Saturday week – July 21st.
Lance-Corpl Hiskett was formerly in the Inland Revenue
Department of the Civil Service at Somerset House and he joined the army – as
soon as the Department released him for the purpose - in February 1916. He
enlisted at St Albans and obtained his lance corporal stripe six weeks after he
became a soldier. He was on the Instruction Staff at Dovercourt until last
September, when he accompanied a draft of the Bedfordshire to France and had
seen a good deal of fighting since that time. He went through the last Battle
of Loos in April and went “over the top” four times in as many days. The
deceased was a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church, St Albans, of which his
brother, Mr Robert Hiskett, is the secretary, and was a Sunday school teacher
and missionary secretary of the church. A memorial service will be held at
Tabernacle Baptist Church, next Sunday evening when the Rev H W Taylor will
officiate.
Deceased was educated at Hatfield Road School and St Albans
Grammar School entering the latter after winning a County Council Scholarship.
He was an honourable, upright, happy and universally esteemed young fellow, and
a large circle will experience a sense of personal loss in his death. Three
other brothers are in his Majesty’s service viz Company Sergt Major W R Hiskett,
aged 32, Royal Engineers, now in France; Charles Hiskett SSA with the Grand
Fleet, aged 27 (who is expected home on leave next Sunday, having made
arrangements to be married on the following Sunday); and Corpl Frank Hiskett,
aged 25, a motor cycle dispatch rider in France.
Captain A W Elliott, the chief officer of deceased’s
company, in a letter to the mother writes:- “Long before you receive this note
you will have had news of your son’s death. For a long time now he had been
company clerk, and the night that he was killed he went down to meet the
rations. When the rations arrived they said they had never seen him, and
nothing was heard of him until next morning, when a company in support
telephoned up that they had found his body. From examination of the body it is
almost certain that he was killed by shellfire, and they think that death must
have been instantaneous. Your son was very popular with company headquarters
and his death was a great shock to us. He was always cheery and willing to
help. He was a very capable clerk, and all the little things he used to assist
me in each day are constantly reminding me of him. The officers and men all
join me in offering you are sympathy in your great bereavement.”
Company Quartermaster – Sergt W Packer (who, by the way, is
a Watford man), in the course of a letter, states:- “I can assure you it was a
great blow to myself when I heard the sad news concerning your son and I had
great confidence in him as he was always willing, never faint hearted, but with
his cheery smile would set out for the rations for the boys of his company; and
had won the esteem and respect of officers and men. We feel his loss and wish
to share your bereavement and trust that consolation may be given to you in the
fact tht your brave boy, with many others, have paid the price of that mighty
sacrifice which Britain’s lads are giving so that those far and wide may yet
enjoy the life and liberty that England longs to give. Your son’s death was
instantaneous by German shell fire in a trench while going for the company’s
rations. His body has been recovered and was buried at _____ near Looe, and the
battalion will put a cross upon the grave.”
Acknowledgments
Helen Little
Gareth Hughes
