Name
Errol George Montague Beart
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Army Service Corps
Attached 228th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VOORMEZEELE ENCLOSURES NO.1 AND NO.2
I. F. 13.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth
Pre War
Errol was born in Hesire, Hong Kong, China in 1890, but was a British subject.
The 1901 census records Errol as 11, a pupil/boarder at Dean Close Memorial School, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. By the 1911 census Errol was recorded as single and a boarder at 60 Harcourt Road, Sheffield, West Riding, Yorkshire and his occupation is given as a steel converter.
Wartime Service
His Army Medal Card shows he enlisted in the 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, Army Service Corps, with the Service No MS/685. He disembarked in France on the 16th November 1914.
In 1916 Errol Beart was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps. He was however, attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery, and served with the 228th Siege Battery. This unit, equipped with 9.2inch howitzers, arrived in France 14 January 1917 and immediately moved to the Ypres area.
As an Artillery unit, it would be thought that this was a reasonably ‘safe’ position. However, the Germans in mid-July started using Mustard Gas for the first time. Between 0100 and 0430 hours during the night of the 28-29 July, Errol Beart’s battery was bombarded with this gas.
His recorded death on 31 July was probably due to the effects of this gas attack. He was aged 27.
Errol Beart is buried at Voormezeele Cemetery near Ypres.
His connection to Sawbridgeworth has not yet been found..
Additional Information
His Medal Card records that he had a sister living at 10 Duke Street, Edinburgh.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Stuart Osborne, Douglas Coe
