Name
Herbert John Peek
1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/05/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
112438
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD (HEATH LANE) CEMETERY
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Marlowes Baptist Church, Marlowes
Pre War
Herbert John Peek was born in in 1892 in Hemel Hempstead, the only son of John and Annie Peek.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living at Weymouth Street, Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was a Laundry Proprietor. His father had been a bricklayer's labourer but his mother's family ran the laundry business and John Peek joined the business when he married.
When Herbert left school he joined the family laundry business and was working as a Laundry Machinist on enlistment and lived at 1 Cemmaes Terrace, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. He suffered from bronchitis which may have been as a result of inhaling fumes from chemicals used in the laundry.
Wartime Service
He was deemed to have enlisted on 2 March 1916 and called up for service on 12 April 1917, joining at Blackpool on 14 April 1917. At his medical he was said to be "poorly" developed and weighed just over 7 stones. He said he had suffered with bronchitis and asthma for 5 years before enlistment but was still passed fit for service.
He served for seven months with the Royal Army Medical Corps, K Company, five of which were spent in hospital with chronic bronchitis, 'not attributable to or aggravated by military service'. He was admitted to Victoria Hospital, Blackpool on 3 June 1917 but discharged as unfit for service on 25 October 1917 due to asthma, chronic bronchitis, cardiac dilation and emphysema.
Once back in Hemel Hempstead, Herbert's condition worsened and he was admitted to the West Herts Hospital, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. He died on 29 May 1918, aged 26 and was buried in Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead on 1 June 1918 in a ceremony conducted by Rev Percy George, the Minister of Marlowes Baptist Church where Herbert worshipped and where he is commemorated on a Memorial Plaque.
Additional Information
Not in the CWGG records.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
