Name
Joseph Cakebread (MM)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/11/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
29832
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MONTAY-NEUVILLY ROAD CEMETERY, MONTAY
IV. A. 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Gilston War Memorial, Pye Corner, Gilston, Not on the Hoddesdon memorials, Not on the High Wych memorials, Not on the Sawbridgeworth memorials
Pre War
Joseph Cakebread was born on 7 Nov 1884 in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire and baptised there on 22 Feb 1885. Son of Alfred and Eliza Edna Cakebread.
He moved to Sawbridgeworth when he was very young to live with his grandparents who ran the Post Office on London Road (now Cambridge Road). He lived in Brambles Wood, Hoddesdon in 1891 and 1901 and was recorded as a gamekeeper.
In 1911 he lodged at Great Penneys Farm in High Wych, still working as a gamekeeper. He was married to Lily Maud Neal and resident in Sawbridgeworth when he enlisted in Bedford.
Wartime Service
During his service Joseph was awarded the Military Medal.
On the night of the 2nd November 1918, Joseph and his Battalion were resting at Bousies. They received an order to move to attack the German line at Preux-au-Bois on the 4th as part of the Battle of the Sambre. The Regiment’s war diary records that “the operations (were) entirely successful”, unfortunately not for Joseph. They had 8 men killed, 37 wounded and 3 missing – Joseph died.
Killed in action at the Battle of Sambre one week before the armistice.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Jonty Wild, David Harvey – Leventhorpe School, Theo van de Bilt, Douglas Coe
