Name
Claud James William Sweeney (MM)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
265502
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Ware Town Memorial, St Mary’s Church Memorial, Ware, Christchurch Memorial, Ware, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Born in 1897 in Butcher Row, Ware, Hertfordshire son of John and Mary Elizabeth Sweeney and was living at 32 Crib Street, Ware in 1911 and later at 13 London Road, Ware.
Wartime Service
Enlisted at Hertford formerly 2537, entered France on 23 Jan 1915 and was killed in action near Ypres.
Private C. Sweeney, Hertfordshire Regiment, was decorated for bravery for his action in the battle of Ancre in November 1916, was killed in action in July 1917.
M.M. London Gazette 19 February 1917.
Claud James William Sweeney won his M.M. for bravery in the Ancre Valley on the Somme on 13 November 1916, when his Battalion captured the Hansa Line at a cost of around 150 casualties. Regimental records state:
‘Private C. Sweeney and Private R. Page, both of No. 3 Company showed great gallantry. They bombed a dug out, and when three German officers and men came up armed from it, they disarmed them. When Corporal Jackson was wounded, Private Page took command of the bombing post at Point 35, and both he and Private Sweeney were conspicuous in assisting in the capture of a party of 30 German machine-gunners.’
The following entry appears in Ware Men in the First World War:
‘Private (Acting Lance-Corporal) Claud James William Sweeney enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment at the age of 17 at Hertford. He was an athletic lad known for diving into the Lea from Toll Bridge. Claud landed in France on 23 January 1915. In November 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry during the Battle of Ancre. He fell in the Battle of St. Julien on 31 July 1917, a few days after attaining his 20th birthday, and within a couple of miles of where his father laid down his life. Company Sergeant-Major Edward Clarke, a neighbour of Mrs. Sweeney, wrote to her with the sad news of the death of ‘poor old Claud’ as he affectionately called him. He says he was given the chance to stay out of the attack, but he stoutly refused - ‘I was with him a few hours before his death, he was then in the very best of spirits and was with his platoon joining in the singing. It was such a shame to lose a fine chap, and I am sure the few of us who came out of the attack join me in expressing our sympathy with you in your sad loss, which is ours also’. Both Claud Sweeney and Edward Clarke were in No. 3 Company.
Mrs. Sweeney was presented with her son’s Military Medal at Balls Park, Hertford on 12 February 1918 by Major Sir H. J. Delves Broughton, the commander of the N.C.Os school there. The Commandant told her he was pleased to have the honour of presenting her son’s decoration to her although he sincerely regretted that he had lost his life in the defence of his country. Three rousing cheers were given by 450 trainee N.C.Os who paraded before the medal recipient. Like many others killed at St. Julien, Claud has no known grave and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate.’
Additional Information
Son of Private John Sweeney who was killed in action on 29 Oct 1915 and is also commemorated on these memorials.
His medals were sold in Sepet6mber 2009 for £980.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Jonty Wild
