Name
Harold William Culling
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/07/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
9th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 6A and 6B.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour,
Bushey Town Memorial,
St James's Church Memorial, Bushey,
St Paul's Church Memorial, Bushey,
Diocese - Book of Remembrance, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans,
Diocese of St Albans - ROH, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans
Pre War
Son of James William Henry and the late Florence Emily (née HEATH) CULLING of Bushey. James Culling was a Civil Servant, an Assistant Director of Victualling, at the Admiralty.
His parents married 20 September 1894 at St John the Evangelist, Forton, Hants. Florence died 1908 in the Hendon, Middx, district aged 38. James remarried 29 July 1909 at St Matthew’s, Willesden, Middx, to Edith Winifred Maude TAYLOR. James, C.B. C.B.E., died 30 January 1949 in Bushey aged 78; Edith died 6 December 1969 in Leicester aged 87.
Harold was born 25 July 1897 in either Hampstead, London, or Willesden, and was registered in the Hendon registration district baptised 19 September 1897 at Christ Church, Brondesbury, London.
He has an entry in the National Probate Calendar.
On the 1901 Census, aged 3 he lived at 57 Connaught Road, Willesden, with his father and no siblings. By 1911 Census they had settled at ‘The Shieling’, Grange Road, Bushey with Harold at school aged 13 he with his father, step-mother and two siblings.
Later the address was nearby ‘Rostellan’ in Bushey Grove Road (the section now re-named Woodlands Road).
Wartime Service
He attested at Euston Road, London, 8 January 1915, Private 3115 28th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Artists Rifles): aged 19, 5’ 7” tall, next-of-kin his father of Bushey, Herts.
He was discharged to be commissioned as Second Lieutenant 9th Battalion, West Riding Regiment.
He was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914-15 Star medals, his qualifying date being 11 August 1915, and was killed in action at Fricourt.
He was killed in action on 7 July 1916, aged 19 and is remembered with honour on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
Additional Information
There is an article about Harold in the ‘West Herts and Watford Observer’ dated 29 July 1916; plus ‘In Memoriam’ in the issue dated 7 July 1917.
His brother Victor James Culling died of wounds at home on 28 October 1918, aged 23, and also features on Watford Borough Roll of Honour.
Information provided with the kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project. Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), Andrew Palmer, Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
