Name
William Canfield
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/11/1918
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
266413
Bedfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THUNDRIDGE (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
Grave No 419.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Thundridge War Memorial. Not on the High Cross memorials
Pre War
Born in August 1896 the Son of Phillip & Agnes Canfield, in Havens End(*1), Herts., where his father Phillip worked for the County Council as a road man.
The 1911 Census gives his occupation as a Farm Labourer, living at 171 Musley Hill, Ware, Herts. with five brothers. It is believed that four of the sons served in the War.
Wartime Service
Initially he enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment with the Service Number 4568. From his Medal Card entry, we find he arrived on the Western Front on the 17th August 1915.
He was later transferred to the Bedfordshires where he was promoted to acting Corporal. Rather poignantly, having been wounded three times and survived, he died only a few days after the Armistice in Norfolk War Hospital of influenza, and is buried in Thundridge Churchyard
Additional Information
*1 this location has not yet been found a may be a house name.
Acknowledgments
Maurice Charge, Stuart Osborne, Pat Bird
