The Herne Hill Society is hosting an important event on the evening of Wednesday 12 December to update residents on the progress of the Remembering Herne Hill 1914–18 Project, and introducing the newly published memoirs – Grace’s Story – of a young Herne Hill lady who lived through that war and in the difficult years that followed.
Please note that the venue for this event will be the Herne Hill Baptist Church in Half Moon Lane, which is the large red brick building only five minutes’ walk from the station, just a little way beyond The Half Moon pub. No tickets are required. Timings are 7:45 – 9:15pm
Meanwhile the memorial website (see earlier post below) is live. Volunteer researchers have unearthed and filed information about over 370 casualties on the database, with hundreds more still to add. The Society has also created two online maps to indicate where our First World War casualties lived, and also where they are buried or remembered today.
Fawnbrake casualties: Lieutenant Reginald Dell
Reginald Dell is one of at least four Fawnbrake Avenue residents – more may be discovered as the research continues – who were killed during World War I. His military records cite his address as 90 Fawnbrake Avenue.
Reginald Dell was born in Wells, Somerset in 1887. But at some subsequent point he became a resident of Herne Hill. He married Hilda Fox in Wells in early 1918. Tragically, however, he was killed in May of the same year.
Hilda remained at this address for the next 9 years, when she moved to Deepdene Road.
Reginald fought in what was known as the Spring Offensive of 1918. The 20th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps was formed in March 1918 and fought at the Battle of St. Quentin and suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Rosieres. In April the troops were withdrawn while they waited for new drafts. However, by this time, Reginald had clearly suffered fatal wounds and died on 5 May. He is buried in the cemetery of Avesnes-sur-Helpe with the inscription “Here is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England”.
[Extract from the World War I records being assembled by the Remembering Herne Hill 1914 – 1918 Project]
