Herbert is recorded in the admissions register Ilford County High School as having joined the school, as a thirteen year old in July 1902. Born in Mile End, East London. Previously, he had studied at Tynes Hall School.
His father was Henry, an undertaker and his mother was Emily. His father advertised in the school’s tenth annual sports day programme that he was an embalmer with two diplomas. The advert boasted that, ‘Motor funerals could be arranged…Distance no object.’ His business was located at 70, Ilford Lane.
When he joined the school, Herbert’s family lived at 18, The Drive. He had three brothers, James, Ernest and Henry and three sisters, Lilian, Emily and Kathleen.
In the 1911 Census, Herbert is recorded as a potato salesman. Both of his older brothers had been vegetable sellers. He was still single and living at home, with his father and step-mother at 280 High Road, Ilford.
Herbert served as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. He died, aged 29, on 20th October 1918 and has a grave in the Bethencourt Communal Cemetery. By this time, both of his parents had died and so he left his effects to his brother, Henry, who lived in Gidea Park.
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.