Name
David Sharp
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/04/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
22969
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POZIERES MEMORIAL
Panel 28 and 29
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Garden City Memorial, Hatfield Hyde Village Memorial, St. Mary Magdalene, Church Memorial, Hatfield Hyde, Hatfield Town Memorial, Hatfield In Memoriam Book, We are not aware of any Langley village memorial
Pre War
David Sharp was born 1896 in Langley, Herts, the son of George and Eliza Sharp and one eleven children.
On the 1901 Census the family, George and Eliza and four children, were living at Hatfield Hyde, Herts where his father was working as a Sandpit Labourer. They remained in Hatfield Hyde in 1911 and David was then working as a Farm Labourer and his father is still a sandpit labourer. There were now eight brothers and sisters.
His parents address was later given variously as 10 or 11 Sandpit Cottages, Hatfield, Herts.
Officially recorded as born in Hatfield, Herts and was living in Hatfield Hyde, Herts. when he enlisted in St Albans.
Wartime Service
David enlisted in St Albans and served with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
By December 1918 the Battalion were near Forceville, France. David was one of seven other ranks killed in action on 7 April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. He was then aged 23 and presumed dead with no known grave but his name is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, France.
In the Bishop’s Hatfield Parish Magazine of December 1915, in the sixteenth list of men mobilised, recorded: “From Hatfield – Sharp, David – Hyde – 3rd Beds Regt.” and in November 1918: “We much regret to note among the missing Pte David Sharp 4th Beds Regt.”
Awarded the Victory Medal and British War Medal.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £14 and pay owing of £8 10s 7d.
Brother to Christopher Sharp who was killed in action on 9 November 1915 and is buried at Chocques Military Cemetery, France, and who is also listed on these memorials. Although pension cards exist for both Christopher and his brother David, there are no details of any pension received.
Hatfield Parish Council Souvenir Committee Ledger: Mrs Sharp (Mother) of 10, Sandpit Cottages, Hatfield Hyde received an “In Memoriam and Roll of Honour Album”.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, Christine & Derek Martindale, Hatfield Local History Society (www.hatfieldhistory.uk)
