Name
Wilfred Henry Tew
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/11/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36486
Royal Berkshire Regiment
6th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CONTAY BRITISH CEMETERY, CONTAY
II. F. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, 4 Co' Hertfordshire Reg' Territorials’ Memorial, Hitchin, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
He was the youngest son of Thomas and Florence Lavinia Tew of Hitchin. His father a butcher, later recorded at Bunyan Road, Hitchin.
He was a resident of Hitchin and had been an assistant in his father's butchers shop. He was also a Boy Scout.
Wilfred was an apprentice at the Phoenix Motor Works in Letchworth.
The Hertford Mercury reported that he had enlisted before the age of 16 while a scout and giving his age as 18.
Wartime Service
He had enlisted in Hertford into the Hertfordshire Regiment by December 1914, where he held Regimental Number 3696. Later he was posted to the 6th Battalion of the Berkshires with the Number 36486 and was in a Lewis gun Section.
He died of wounds in France on his 18th Birthday. He had been admitted to No. 9 Casualty Clearing Station with an injury to his throat and died at 9.30pm. The Battalion had been heavily engaged on the Somme from the 1st July 1916 onwards.
Wilfred was buried in Plot II, Row F, Grave 8 in the Contay British Cemetery in France.
Additional Information
A private inscription on the headstone reads "Died on his eighteenth birthday". He had two brothers in the Army.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
