Name
David Brown
1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/10/1918
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
103493
Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment)
10th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NEUVILLY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
B. 32.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial,
Church of the Ascension (The Tin Church), Bedmond,
Family grave St Lawrence Church, Abbots Langley,
Not on the Leverstock Green memorials,
Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials,
Not on the Kings Langley memorials
Pre War
Wartime Service
Biography
David Brown was one of four brothers from Bedmond that served in the Great War. He was born in 1886, when the family was living at Westfield Row, Leverstock Green and baptised there on 11th April 1886 in Holy Trinity Church. His parents, James (b1849 and an Agricultural Worker) and Mary Ann Brown (nee Moody, b1874), had eleven children in total, six sons and five daughters - William (b1874), John (b1875), George (b1877), Rose (b1879), Arthur (b1881), Mary (b1883), Lily (b1888, Frederick J. (b1890), Ellen (b1893) and Annie (b1895)
In 1891 James worked as an Agricultural Labourer, with David aged 5, at School and the family living at Westwick Row, St Michael, St Albans, Herts. By the time of the 1901 Census he was employed as a Horse Man on a Farm, and the family now lived at Bedmond. David was aged 14 and working as a Horseman on a Farm.
David married Lily Albina Peters the daughter of Henry and Hannah Peters of Lambeth, Middlesex on 8th December 1906 in Abbots Langley, and their first child, Violet Mary was born the following year while the couple were living at Bedmond.
The 1911 Census showed that the family lived on Bedmond Road, two houses from the Green Man Pub in Bedmond, and David worked as a Carman on an Estate.
He was recorded as living in Kings Langley, when, on 25th November 1915, he enlisted at Watford with the Bedfordshire Regiment, aged 30, and returned home to await mobilisation. He gave his occupation as a farmhand on enlistment. He was mobilised on 1st June 1916, and posted to the Bedfordshire’s Depot at Bedford as Private 29843. A few days later on 10th June a second child, Robert (Ronald?) David was born at Bedmond.
David was posted to the 10th Bedfordshires, and was first listed in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in July 1916. On 25th September 1916 he was sent to France, and on 10th October 1916 he was posted to the 7th Bedfordshire’s as a member of a draft 158 men.
On 3rd May 1917, the 7th Bedfordshire was in action at Cherisy, to the south-east of Arras in the 3rd Battle of the Scarpe (Arras). At 4.15am the Bedfordshire’s left their trenches and in the darkness, as zero hour had been set too early, they lost their way. Only one of four supporting tanks arrived, and the battalion was held up by heavy machine gun fire. They remained in the German front line trenches and various shell holes until relieved by the Northampton’s at 2.30am on the morning of 4th May. Capt Douglas Keep, from Abbots Langley, commanded “C” Company of the 7th Bedford’s during this attack and during the action the 7th Bedfordshire’s lost 242 men, killed, wounded and missing. David Brown was evacuated to 47 General Hospital at Le Treport, on the French coast, having sustained a gun-shot wound to the left foot.
He re-joined the 7th Bedford’s on 6th June 1917 and was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal (unpaid) on 4th August.
David was wounded again on 18th October 1917 (gun-shot wound to the left side of the head) during the First Battle of Passchendaele and was evacuated on 1 Nov 1917 to Temple Road Military Hospital at Birkenhead, where he stayed between 2nd and 23rd November 1917.
On his return to duty, he was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, Felixstowe. David, embarked at Dover on 5 Apr 1918, and disembarked at Calais, France. on 6 Apr 1918 and was transferred to the Sherwood Foresters (10th Notts & Derby) on 7th April with the new serial number 103493. In August of the same year, he was promoted to Lance Corporal Paid). He remained with this battalion until he was killed in action on 20th October 1918, south-east of Cambrai in France.
The December 1918 edition of the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine recorded – “David Brown, of Bedmond, of the 4th Sherwood Foresters), was killed in action on October 20th, He was a universal favourite, and all who knew him will feel that they have lost a personal friend. Quiet, obliging, a devoted husband, an excellent father and a dutiful son, he was an employee at Serge Hill, where he was most esteemed and is greatly missed. We offer our heartfelt regrets to his wife and little children”.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £13 10s 0d and pay owing of £19 19s 3d. She also received a pension of £1 5s 5d a week for herself and her children.
Brothers George and Arthur both served with the Labour Corps. George was killed in action in 1918 and Arthur died in 1919 as a result of gas. His brother Fred also served but survived the war and died in 1987, aged 97.
His brother Arthur who is buried in Harpenden has a CWGC headstone that bears the inscription requested by his mother to his brothers, George and David who also died, it reads:
“ALSO IN MEMORY OF 103493 L. CPL D. BROWN SHERWOOD FORESTERS KILLED IN FRANCE 20 OCT. 1918 AND 17102 PRIVATE G. BROWN THE QUEEN’S KILLED IN FRANCE 19 FEB. 1918 GREATER LOVE”
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org.,
