Herbert Brown: Wednesday 5th July 1916

Herbert Edward enlisted into the 1/5th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment (T.F.), and became Corporal 8878. He attested for the Regiment in Walsall, Staffordshire, as Herbert William. He entered France on the 5 March 1915, dying of wounds at 20 Casualty Clearing Station, and is buried with a plain cross in the Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, Pas de Calais, France.

His name was included on intersession lists, which were published up to Easter 1916, so it seems reasonable to assume that he was wounded or injured during or after the Battle of Loos, which was the first large-scale offensive of the war, or the actions of Hohenzollern Redoubt that followed after. 

He was born in 1891 in Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex, the son of Michael, Principle Warder, and Mary Maud Brown. In the 1891 census, he is shown living with his mother Mary Maud, born Marlborough, Wilts., with his father being absent – probably due to the Prison not having married quarters. In the 1901 & 1911 census, the family are living at No 60 Officer’s Quarters, H.M.P. Wandsworth, and 337 Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common. His brother, Harold George, was born in 1896 in Wandsworth. By 1911 Herbert is an Engineer’s Clerk for a Consulting Engineer, it doesn’t say which firm, but perhaps for the Davey’s? His brother was a Telegraph Messenger for the Post Office.

It appears that Herbert married Susanne Mallett in the first quarter of 1916 in the Cannock registration district (Staffordshire), perhaps when on leave or convalescing from injuries, less than six months before his death. Soldier’s Effects show that outstanding monies and War Gratuity were sent to his wife, Susanne. At the time of the formalisation of the Graves and Memorials by the CWGC, the next of kin details are given for Michael at 33 Officers’ Quarters, H.M.P. Wandsworth, with Herbert’s wife, Susanna Brown, living at 4 Furstenberg Strasse, Remagen, Rhineland, Germany.