Name
(Horace) John Taylor
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/05/1915
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
2425
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY
IV. B. 72.
France
Headstone Inscription
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Letchworth Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Norton, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Horace John Taylor was born in 1897 in Henlow, Beds to Edward Taylor, brickmaker, and Mary Ellen (nee Burgess).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Percy William (born 1889), Horace John, and Richard Hugh (born 1898) were living at Clifton Road, Henlow, Beds.
On the 1911 Census the family of parents, father was a builder’s labourer, Percy (a print waste remover at painting factory), John (printer worker), Richard (farm labourer) and George Edward (born 1903) were living at 111, Common View Letchworth.
Worked for Messrs Ewart and Sons Ltd.
Wartime Service
John enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment as Private 2425 on 28 Mar 1914 in the 1st Battalion (the Regiment was a single Battalion Territorial Unit. John volunteered for overseas service and went to France with the 1st Battalion on 5 Nov 1914 joining 4th (Guards) Brigade in 2nd Division at Ypres. During this time John was promoted to unpaid Lance Corporal and the Battalion involved in Trench Duties, deployed at Givenchy near Bethune.
John was wounded on 1 May 1915 from Shellfire (the Battalion was relieved by 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards that night). He died of wounds there on 3 May 1915.
Died of wounds (Shellfire). Letter to Canon Bailey described him as dying in No 4 Field Hospital France.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £3 and arrears of £4 5s 8d was paid to his father.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dan Hill, Ellen Barnes, Jonty Wild
