Name
Samuel Machon
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
16198
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Barkway Village Memorial, St Mary Magdalene Church Memorial, Barkway, Not on the Royston memorials
Pre War
Samuel Machon Vandyke was born in 1889 in Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, London, the son of Ernest Machon and Ellen Vandyke, and was baptised on 17 January 1904 at Barkway, Hertfordshire. His parents not appear to have married and Samuel was brought up by his father and grandparents.
In 1891 as a one year old baby he was living with his father and grandparents Joseph and Eliza Machon in High Street, Barkway. His father was working as a labourer. His grandfather died in 1898 and on the 1901 Census Samuel was living with his widowed grandmother Eliza Machon and father Ernest in High Street, Barkway. By 1911 his father was living on his own in High Street, Barkway and working as a labourer for the County Council. Unable to locate where Samuel was living in 1911.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Royston and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, serving with the 1st battalion in France from 27 April 1915.
Samuel was killed in action on 27 July 1916 during an attack on Longueval (part of the Battle of the Somme). Heavy gas shelling during the battalion's advance caused many casualties. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £7 8s 0d. No pension records have been found.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Paul Johnson, Adrian Pitts
