Name
Daniel Hutchins
15 Sep 1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/04/1918
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33880
Cheshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DOIRAN MEMORIAL
Greece
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, Church of Ascension Memorial, Bedmond, Not on the London Colney memorials
Biography
Daniel was born in London Colney, Herts on 15 Sep 1885 to Daniel Hutchins, a groom, and Ann (nee Hooper). He was the eldest child and had a brother, John and sister, Lizzie. On the 1901 Census Daniel was employed as an errand boy, and was living with his widower father (His mother had died in 1892), in Longmire Road, St Albans. Daniel married Maud Louisa Peters on 21 Feb 1903. On the 1911 Census He was employed as a drayman was living at the Queen’s Hotel Yard in St Albans with his wife and four children.
Daniel attested at Watford on 22nd Nov 1915 for the Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 29815 with his address as Bedmond. At his Medical Examination he was described as being of “good physical development”, and he was posted to the Army Reserve, later being mobilised on 1st Jun 1916, Daniel was posted to the 10th Bedfordshire’s on 3 Jun and subsequently posted to the 3rd Bedford’s on 1 Sep 1916. On 19 Oct 1916 he was transferred to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment as Private 33880 and was then posted to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and embarked at Southampton en route to Salonika. He arrived at Salonika on 19th November 1916 joining the 2nd Cheshires (in Salonika from Nov 1915). In 1916 Daniel’s Service Record noted that he passed the Battalion Cookery Course but did not indicate when, or with which battalion.
In Jan 1917 the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour listed Daniel serving with the 2nd Cheshire’s. His Service Records (on which he was originally recorded as David but later amend to Daniel) provided no further detail about his movements until he was recorded as killed in action on 15 Apr 1918. He was presumed dead , his remains not being recovered and on 7th Nov the Ministry of Pensions declared a pension of 33/9 (approximately £1-68) per week for his wife and children, payable from 4 Nov 1918.
The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine reported Daniel’s death in June 1918: “A Bedmond man, Daniel Hutchins of the Cheshire Regiment, died in Salonica on 15th April. He has only been home once to see his wife and family since his enlistment, and has been for nearly all the time with the Salonica Forces. All will feel sympathy with his wife and four children.”
Daniel Hutchins was commemorated on the Doiran Memorial, Salonika, on the Abbots Langley War Memorial, and on the War Memorial at the Church of the Ascension at Bedmond.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
