Alfred with his sweetheart, Hetty Fisher.
Alfred Richard Hurdwell was born in 1896, the eldest son of John and Edith, he had 5 sisters and 2 brothers. In 1911 he was 15 and a horseman on a farm, his father was a labourer and lived in Honey Hill Wokingham. He joined the 2/4th bn Royal Berkshire Regiment (number 200139) and was killed in Belgium whilst fighting with the battalion on 22 August 1917. His name is commemorated on the Memorial to the missing at Tyne Cot, Belgium.
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Heather White, his niece provides the following information about Alfred:
“…I have a photograph of Alfred with his sweetheart Hetty Fisher which had been given to one of his sisters and was found in my late mothers belongings when she passed away. I knew all but one of his brothers and sisters who stayed in contact with one another all of their lives. My mother was born at Honey Hill Cottages where the family lived and my two brothers, my sister and myself were also born there. The cottages were part of the Easthampstead estate belonging to Lord Downshire. My grandfather John Hurdwell died in September 1940 shortly after my birth, following an accident on a Hay Cart (described the Coroner as a Hay Lorry). I was told it was a Hay Cart by my cousin Doris Walder who was present at the time”.
Name: HURDWELL, ALFRED
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment
Unit Text: 2nd/4th Bn.
Age: 21
Date of Death: 22/08/1917
Service No: 200139 Additional information: Son of John and Edith Mary Hurdwell, of Honey Hill, Wokingham, Berks.
Reference: Addenda Panel. Memorial: TYNE COT MEMORIAL
From Peter Hurdwell (second cousin once removed)
My friend Alan Jones mentioned to me that you had posted on Ancestry.com some family details of the Hurdwell Family centred around Pte Alfred Hurdwell who was killed supposedly in the Somme in on 5th March 1917 (although strangely he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium).
Pte Alfred Hurdwell was my Second Cousin Once Removed.
Alan and I toured the battle fields of France and Belgium last October and found Alfred Hurdwell’s inscription on an addenda panel at the Tyne Cot Memorial which we photographed. Interestingly though the Batallion War Diaries for the 2nd/4th Battalion do report his death in the Dernicourt Trenches which were near Peronne in the south of the Somme sector.
The 2nd/4th Battalion 21st July 1916 to March 1917
Dernicourt Trenches (2nd to 15th March 1917)The battalion again went into front line at Deniecourton the 2nd March, relieving the 2/4th Ox and Bucks. Second-Lieutenant C. W. Thornton was wounded while the relief was taking place.
They set to to improve the defences, clearing the trenches of mud, erecting new wire and improving firing positions.
203111 William George Fuller of Calcot died from his gas poisoning on the 5th and was buried at Assevillers New British Cemetery. On the same day Alfred Hurdwell of Wokingham also died but strangely he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
However the CWG record show his date of death as 22 August 1917 during the 3rd Battle of Ypres….. a real mystery
I have a copy of the certificate sent to his parents in 1917 telling them of his death (it shows Alfred Hurdwell’s death as 5/3/1917)and I’d be happy to send you a copy if you don’t already have one. I also found a photo of Pte Alfred Hurdwell and his girlfriend on the following website. Google – Westlake Frederick Thomas Wokingham Remembers – enter Alfred Hurdwell. Oddly enough, I was conscripted into the British Army in 1955 and my army number was 2313900, the same numbers but different sequence to Alfred’s 200139.
To put things into some sort of chronological perspective, my Father was Reginald Ernest Hurdwell and he was the third of four sons born to James Thomas (Tom) Hurdwell and Elizabeth Hurdwell nee Sadler. Incidentally, the family name changed in 1874 when James Thomas Hurdwell was born. The change of name from Hurdle to Hurdwell was apparently initiated by John and Thomas Hurdwell.
I have an idea that the name of Gorton appears on a war memorial in Woking or Wokingham and he may have been related to my maternal grandfather Percy George Gorton who fought in the Queen’s Own Royal West Surrey Regiment. The Gortons ended up in Windlesham and ran the Post Office for quite some time and the Lightwater Laundry. George Gorton (born in 1861) my great grandfather lived in Wokingham and I remember meeting him when I was three years of age in 1941.
I have quite a lot of information and memories about the Hurdwell and Gorton families and also the Morris family of Bagshot if it is of interest to you.
I hope the above may fill a couple of spaces for you.
Kindest regards,
Peter Hurdwell.
Hello I have been trying to find some way of contacting Peter Hurdwell on behalf of my Grandad Gerald Hutchings- they met when they were in the army together and he would like to get in contact but doesn’t have an address to write to, if someone (or Peter himself) could get in touch with me I would be very grateful.
Thanks
Jen Mitchell
i have been in touch with peter of late and can ask him if it is possible to email or write to him, as we share a great great grand father together, i have just sent him an email…regards a.atkinson
I have a particular affinity with Wokingham as many of my ancestors lived in the area, in fact my great grandfather, Thomas Hurdwell was a forester in the area and died in Bagshot Park in 1895 when struck by the branch of a large tree. As a consequence my Grandfather George Thomas Hurdwell, being the eldest son became the sole breadwinner in the family, working at the Broadmoor Asylum by day and walking back to the family home Camberley, stopping off at Sandhurst to polish the boots, gaiters and Sam Browne of a British Army officer.
I also have very fond memories of my visit a few years ago when together with my cousin Heather White we placed poppies at the Cenotaph in Wokingham in remembrance of Pte Alfred Hurdwell who was killed in Belgium and whose name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial. It was a memorable experience to find his name on that memorial when travelling the battlefields where he and my maternal grandfather Percy Gorton of Lightwater served in the Queens Own West Surrey Regiment.
My maternal grandfather of whom I was very fond, was gassed in Belgium in 1917 and in March 1918 was the only soldier left in his unit (not sure what comprised a unit) and was found wondering in no man’s land after a battle in Bucqoy in France.
After several years of research a company call ‘Nineteen Fourteen I managed to find the exact spot where he had been found wondering. Apparently he was very worried when he was picked up, doubtless worried about being shot as a deserter as were 326 she’ll shocked soldiers in the British Army whose names are now celebrated in an arboretum in Stafford. His name was Percy Gorton fro Lightwater. He and my Gran eventually opened a laundry in Lughtwater and also owned the Windlesham Post Office where I spent much of my childhood.