Herbert Frederick Whitbread

Rank 
Driver
Regiment 
Army Service Corps
Date of death 
19 January 1918
Age of death 
25
Address 
2 Mansfield Cottages
Victoria Road
South Woodford
Woodford
E18 1LH
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
Greece
Biography 

Born in 1893 at Buckhurst Hill, son of Frederick (General Labourer) and Bridget Whitbread. 1901: A Scholar with his family at Burlington Place, Woodford Wells. 1911: A Porter in a Bakery Shop, still living with his mother and family at 2 Mansfield Cottages, Victoria Road, South Woodford. This was the home of Charles Bratton (Bricklayer), to whom Bridget was Housekeeper. She later lived at 4 Melbourne Terrace, Daisy Road, South Woodford, and according to the 1918 Electoral Roll, at 21 Melbourne Terrace.

Herbert had become a Bakers Roundsman, living at 37 Calderon Road, Leyton when on 30th September 1913 he enlisted with 3 East Anglian Field Ambulance (T) at Church Hill, Walthamstow. On 30th June 1914 he joined the Great Eastern Railway as a Cooks Mate in restaurant cars. Later in the summer he took leave to attend the annual Army camp at Clacton; it was there on 5th August 1914 that he found himself embodied for war service. On 4th March 1916 he transferred to the Army Service Corps as a Driver, and was posted to the regular Army on 1st September 1916.

He was part of the Salonika Expeditionary Force, embarking from Southampton on the “Londonderry” during 3rd January 1917. Having changed ships, he arrived in that theatre on 14th January. He served with 3 Base Horse Transport. During 5th October 1917 he arrived in 43 General Hospital having fallen ill with Malaria, and he was treated in other medical facilities before entering 42 General Hospital on 9th December 1917.

A final case summary note survives in his service file. He was assessed on 9th December 1917 as having clinical Dysentery, marked post malarial debility and was extremely emaciated. A bronchial cough of old standing developed into an attack of Broncho Pneumonia and against this combination of illnesses he made little or no headway. The emaciation increased and he gradually became weaker, dying at 02.00 on 19th January 1918.

His name appears on the Great Eastern Railway Memorial at Liverpool Street Station.

Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian

Sources:

Ancestry.com

Service Record

GER Staff Magazine