Name
William Frederick Mead
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/04/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
23409
Essex Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
EUSTON ROAD CEMETERY, COLINCAMPS
V. G. 10.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St James’ Church Memorial, Bushey, Not on the St Albans memorials
Pre War
Born in St Albans in 1898 and Christened on 11 September 1898, William Frederick Mead was the son of Frederick and Alice Ellesmere (nee Clayton) Mead. He was one of eleven children, two of whom died in childhood. His parents were married on 25 September 1892 in Luton, Beds.
At the 1901 Census, the family was living at 56 Clifford Street. His father is 29 years old and employed as a journeyman butcher, and his mother is 31 years old. William was 2 years old and had two sisters, Bessie and Ellesmere, who were 4 and 1 year old respectively. The birthplaces are given as Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire for Frederick, Enfield Lock in Middlesex for Alice, St Albans for Bessie and William and Watford for Ellesmere.
By the time of the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 65 Chester Road, Watford. William was now 12 and had eight siblings; Winifred May, Bessie Florence, Ellesmere Lilian, Alan Oswald, Constance Olive, Ethel Georgina, Arthur and Ronald Charles, who were 17, 14, 11, 8, 6, 4, 3 and 1 years old respectively. The birthplaces are given as Luton for Winifred, St Albans for Bessie and William and Watford for the rest of the children.
Wartime Service
William enlisted in Watford as Private 23409, serving with the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment. He served on the Western Front and was killed in action, aged 19, on 1 April 1918. He is remembered with honour at the Euston Road Cemetery, Colinscamps on the Somme and is also commemorated on the Bushey Memorial and at St James’ Parish Church, Bushey.
His pension card names his mother Alice as his dependant, with an address of 36 Rosebery Road, Bushey, and awards a pension of 12s/6d with effect from 29 October 1918.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Gareth Hughes, Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
