Name
Ernest Mead
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Serjeant
15620
Royal Sussex Regiment
B Coy. 13th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PUCHEVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY
V. D. 38.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Great Gaddesden Village Memorial, St John the Baptist Church Roll of Honour, Great Gaddesden, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
Ernest Mead was born in Great Gaddesden, Herts in 1897, the son of William and Elizabeth Mead and baptised there on 17 October 1897.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 'the Barracks', Great Gaddesden, where his father was working as a Roadman Labourer. They remained in Great Gaddessden on the 1911 Census and Ernest was a 13 year old schoolboy with his father then working as a Farm Labourer.
They later lived at 13 St Margaret’s, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford and initially served as a Corporal with Hertfordshire Regiment (reg. no. 3714), later transferring to the 13th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment as a Lance Sergeant.
He died on 23 October 1916 aged 19, from wounds received during the Battle of the Somme. He is buried at Puchevillers British Cemetery near where the 3rd and 44th Casualty Clearing Stations were situated in 1916
Additional Information
Brother of Alfred Mead, Beds Regt, who died on 3 May 1917 and is named on the Arras Memorial, France and the Little Gaddesden Memorial, Herts. His father received his pay owing of £3 11s 1d. The war gratuity of £10 was split between his mother and his sister in law Isabella Mead. His mother also received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org, littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk
