Name
Henry Robert Giffin
25 January 1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/11/1917
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
200934
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
1st/7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SAWBRIDGEWORTH (GREAT ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
New. 3. 64.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
REST IN PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial,
Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth,
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials,
We are not aware of any Tednambury memorial
Pre War
Henry Robert Giffen was born at Sawbridgeworth - possibly Tednambury, Herts on 25 January 1896, the son of William and Annie Giffin , and baptised on 1 March 1896 at Great St. Mary’s, Sawbridgeworth.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Spellbrook, Sawbridgeworth where his father was working as a general labourer. They later lived at Tednambury, near Bishop's Stortford.
In the census of 1911, Henry was recorded as a ‘Printer’s Assistant’ and was living in Barnet.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Hornsey and served in the Middlesex Regiment as no. 3455 and then 10th Battalion Queens Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) and then the 1/7th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. They had been briefly quartered in High Barnet, before embarking for Le Havre in France on 12th March 1915, arriving the following day.
On 21 November 1917, Henry’s unit was involved in the capture of a feature called ‘Tadpole Copse’. This was a part of the Passchendaele offensive. It seems likely that Henry was mortally wounded in this action. Henry was evacuated back to England, and on 26 November 1917 died at Queen Mary's Hospital* at Whalley, Clitheroe Lancashire. His parents then had the body returned to Sawbridgeworth.
Henry Giffin is buried in Great St. Mary’s churchyard. He was aged 21.
* In WW1 Queen Mary's Hospital at Whalley, Lancashire, was being built as a lunatic asylum but when it opened on 14 April 1915 it was immediately taken over by the War Office.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs Annie Giffen, Tednambury, Nr Bishop's Stortford, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "REST IN PEACE".
His mother received a war gratuity of £13 10s and pay owing of £21 2s 6d.
N.B. spelling of Tednambury is shown as incorrectly as Lednambury in transcription.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, Douglas Coe
