Genealogists' Forum - We have branches everywhere!



Go Back   Genealogists' Forum - We have branches everywhere! > Research > What Did Your Relative Do In The Great War?

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 11-05-15, 07:54
Jill Jill is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,176
Default (58) (58) Herbert Edward Grant Staples, Lieut 1614 54th Bn, Australian Infantry

58th of the St Wilfrid's School, Haywards Heath Old Boys to lose his life in WW1.

Herbert was born in Long Ashton, Somerset on the 3rd Sep 1889, his father (also called Herbert, born in Cambridgeshire) was a coachman and the family had lived in several places due to his father’s work. Herbert’s mother Elizabeth was from Birmingham and it was here that Herbert was christened. He and his mother were also on a visit to his grandmother in Birmingham at the time of 1901 census while his father was at home in Cuckfield, close to Haywards Heath. By 1911 they had moved on to Hove where Herbert had become a cabinet maker, making antique style furniture.

Herbert had gone to Australia, working as a cabinet maker and it was here he joined the Army. He embarked aboard HMAT Beltana on 9th November 1915 from Sydney, his address had been 20 Doncaster Avenue, Kensington, New South Wales. Herbert was awarded the Military Medal:

“On the night of 16th September, 1916 during a raid on the enemy trenches by 30th Battalion, 8th Infantry Brigade, L/Corporal Staples, who was in charge of a Scouting party, went out before our artillery bombardment and cleared way a quantity of wire so as to give our raiding party a clear approach.

For several nights prior to the raid L/Corporal Staples took his Scouts out over “No Man’s Land,” reconnoitring the ground, frequently entering the enemy’s wire and approaching closely his parapet.”


Herbert then underwent officer training in October 1916 at Oxford, moving on from there to Pirbright for further training. He left for the war again on 19 February 1917 where he was soon appointed as a Bombing Officer.

He had a period of about 3 weeks leave in England just after Christmas 1917 and then in March of that year some leave in Paris. He was wounded in action on the 9th February 1918 and admitted to the 55th Field Ambulance section with shrapnel wounds to his face and right side ; he died of those wounds in France on 22 Apr 1918 aged 28, and is buried at Namps au Val British Cemetery grave II B 23.

A letter to his mother says he was wounded in the stomach and legs at around 7am when a shell hit the dugout he was sheltering in. Lieutenant Colonel Conaghy was also wounded; both men were evacuated by stretcher bearers. The Lieutenant Colonel was also later to die of his wounds.

Herbert’s parents by then were at 7 South Cliff Garage, Silverdale Road, Eastbourne. There is a letter in his records from his mother at the time of his award of the Military Medal thanking the army for sending her a copy of the citation and saying how proud she was. There is also a note to say that three photos of his grave were taken in 1919 to be forwarded to his mother, also a copy of the Will he made before leaving Australia leaving everything to his mother.


An extract from an Australian newspaper from the Trove website:

Mr H Dudley of 90, Doncaster-avenue, Kensington, has been notified that Lieutenant Herbert Edward Grant Staples, has died in France. Lieutenant Staples left Sydney as lance-corporal, and gained his commission after studying at the officers’ school at Oxford. He had been absent on active service for about three years, and was last year awarded the Military Medal in France. He leaves two brothers, one of whom is serving in the United States Flying Corps, and the other is at Salonica. His parents reside in England, and he was previously in the employ of Messrs Madeley, furniture manufacturers, Sydney.

The Mid Sussex Times had this to say:

MID SUSSEX TIMES 30 Apr 1918
MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
Yet another old St Wilfrid’s boy has made the supreme sacrifice. Lieutenant H.E.G. Staples M.M., of the Australian Imperial Forces, was dangerously wounded on a British front on the 9th inst and died at a casualty clearing station on the 20th. One of the men writes thus in a letter to his parents –“All the boys of the Battalion will miss him, as he was one of the best and bravest, and we shall know how to avenge him.” Two of the deceased’s brothers are serving, one being in the American Air Service and the other in Solonica.


His two brothers Fred and William survived the war.

The National Archives of Australia and National Library of Australia must be congratulated and thanked for having respectively, military service records and scans of newspapers freely available online which was where much of my information on Herbert came from.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 08:19.


Hosted by Photon IT

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7 PL3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.