Name
Joseph Batchelor
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/10/1914
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2484
3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales' Own)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 3.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, Wesleyan (Bushey & Oxhey Methodist) Church Memorial, Oxhey
Pre War
Joseph Batchelor was born in Kilburn, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Eliza) Batchelor. Joseph senior was employed as a coal porter and he and Eliza had five children. In 1900 the family moved to Hertfordshire and Joseph senior, who was a coal porter, died that year, aged 38.
Eliza and her five children settled at 10 Oxhey Street, now part of Oxhey Avenue, and Joseph, who had just left school, worked as an assistant to an ironmonger to help provide for the family.
In 1905 Eliza married William Henry Woodstock, who already had a family, and moved to 42 Tucker Street, just off Watford Lower High Street.
In 1913 Joseph married an Agnes G V Blythe (registered in Watford district) and moved to London.
Wartime Service
When war was declared, Joseph enlisted as Private 2484 with his brother, Henry, with the 3rd battalion of the Dragoon Guards. They served together in Belgium and were both killed in action on the same day, 31 October 1914.
Records show that they are one of 322 sets of brothers who served in the British Army (including the Commonwealth forces) and who are currently known to have died on the same day. They are remembered with honour at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres and also commemorated on the plaque in Bushey Baptist Church.
Joseph's pension record shows Agnes (born 14/02/86) as the widow, living at 94, Kilravock St. Queens Park, London, and Stanley Henry Joseph (born 17/06/15) as a child. It also shows a pension of 15/- per week with effect from 28/06/15 and is separately annotated "widow not eligible for grant".
Additional Information
Information provided with the kind permission of the Bushey World War One Commemoration Project - Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
