Name
Henry William Abrahams
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/10/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
83874
Machine Gun Corps Infantry)
10th Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 154 to 159
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St Katherine’s Church Memorial, Ickleford
Pre War
Henry William Abrahams was born in 1897 in Luton, Beds, the only son of William and Edith Abrahams.
On the 1901 Census he was living with his parents in Pondwicks Road, Luton and his father was working as a plate layer on the railways.
His mother died in 1902 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed grandmother Fanny Pestell in Village Street, Ickleford.
He gave his address on enlistment as Ickleford, Hitchin, Herts with his father living at Round Green, Luton, Beds.
Wartime Service
Henry was formerly in the Training Reserve Battalion reg. no. 16457. He enlisted at Bedford in December 1915 age 18 and gave his occupation as a "drop forger", but was not mobilised until 30 November 1916. After training he left from Folkstone for Boulogne on 10 April 1917 and joined 10 Company, Machine Gun Corps in the field on 22 April 1917.
He was killed in action on 4 October 1917, aged 20, but has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
The Hertfordshire Express reported on the 20th of October 1917:
"News has been received from his corporal, that Private H. Abrahams, a machine gunner, and a native of Ickleford, was killed on October 4. The dead soldier was twenty last May. Previous to joining up he worked at Heatly and Gresham's Works, Letchworth."
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £5 1s 6d.
His grandmother Mrs Fanny Pestell of Ickleford, Hitchin, Herts was awarded a pension of 4s 6d a week for life. She died in 1930 aged 87.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer
