Name
Vernon Batchelor
29 January 1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/07/1916
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
1847
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY, ROUEN
A. 37. 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
GONE, BUT IN OUR HEARTS YOU WILL LIVE ALWAYS
UK & Other Memorials
Little Gaddesden Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Little Gaddesden, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour (2018 Revision), Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Berkhamsted Memorials
Pre War
Vernon Batchelor was born on 29 January 1894 in Studham, Beds, the son of Mark and Jane Batchelor and the eldest of five children. The family were living at Hudnall by 1899 when Vernon was admitted to Little Gaddesden School as an infant on 29 May. They apparently left the area in December 1900 when his name was removed from the school register.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Nettleden, Herts where his father was a Coachman (Domestic) and on 26 October 1903 Vernon returned to Little Gaddesden School with his younger sister Mabel. He left school on 29 January 1908 on his 14th birthday.
By 1911 They had moved to Hudnall, Berkhamsted and Vernon was working as a Farm Labourer while his father was a Horseman on a Farm.
On enlistment he was living at 64, Shrublands Avenue, Berkhamsted and employed on the Ashridge Estate.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Ashridge on 11 March 1912 and served in the Hertfordshire Regiment as a Territorial Volunteer. He was at the Annual Camp at Ashridge at the beginning of August 1914 when war was declared and the men were sent home to await orders, which instructed them to report to Company HQ at The Bury, Hemel Hempstead on 5 August. Vernon was in F Company which went to Romford, and then on the Bury St Edmunds for 2 months' training.
The 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment went by train to Southampton on 5 November, where they boarded the "City of Chester" bound for Le Havre and arrived in France on 6 November 1914. They first saw action during the 1st Battle of Ypres.
In January 1915 he wrote in a letter to an uncle about Christmas in the trenches: “They [the Germans] were busy singing at midnight and playing some sort of whistle. Of course, our lot were singing as well. We were only 15 yards away from them in one place”.
On 22 March 1915, 21 year old Vernon as admitted to No. 4 Stationery Hospital at St Omer suffering from ' ICT Head', a skin condition (pyodermia) which was common as a result of the conditions in which the men lived. He was treated and left hospital, returning to duty on 4 May 1915.
He was injured with a gunshot wound to the left elbow and later from a horse’s kick and sent back to No. 4 Stationery Hospital and then to England for treatment, returning to France in May 1916.
He was wounded in action during the Battle of the Somme and died of those wounds in Rouen at No. 1 Stationary Hospital, on 25 July 1916, age 22. He is buried at St Sever Cemetery, Rouen.
Additional Information
His father, Mr M Batchelor, 64 Shrublands Avenue, ordered his headstone inscription: “GONE, BUT IN OUR HEARTS YOU WILL LIVE ALWAYS”.
His father received a war gratuity of £9 and pay owing of £5 1s 7d. His mother received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org., littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk
