Name
Herbert Harry Dowse
4/02/1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/04/1915
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
16476
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the missing in Belgium.
UK & Other Memorials
Kings Langley Village Memorial, All Saints Church Memorial, Kings Langley
Pre War
Herbert Harry Dowse was born on 4th February 1898, in Kings Langley, Herts, son of Henry Dowse a Carpenter and Lizzie Jane Dowse, the eldest of two children. Herbert was Baptised in the Parish Church, Kings Langley, on 3rd April 1898.
1901 Census records Herbert aged 3, living with his parents and younger brother Sidney 8 months, at 47, St Mary’s Road, Watford, Herts.
1911 Census records Herbert aged 13, at school, living with his parents and brother Sidney 10, at 30, Durban Road, Watford, Herts.
Herbert attended Watford Beechen Grove Board school, between January 1907 and January 1912. Aged 14, he left school and started work at the local Timber Mill.
Wartime Service
On the outbreak of war Herbert travelled to the County Town of Hertford, where he enlisted. Posted to the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment with the service number 16476.
Herbert arrived in France on 2 February 1915, joining his Battalion about a week later in the area of Whtschaete, in Belgium. He was killed in action two months later on 19 April 1915, at the Battle of Hill 60, (17 April to 7 May 1915). He has no known grave; he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the missing in Belgium.
Additional Information
His mother Lizzie received a dependents pension of 5/- a week for life, her home address was given as Vicarage Lane, Kings Langley, Herts. The value of his effects were £4-9s-2d, Pay Owing and £3, War Gratuity which went to his father Henry Dowse.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
