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Spr. Herbert Key
British Army Royal Monmouthshire Engineers Royal Engineers
from:Offley Rock, Eccleshall, Staffordshire
(d.1st Dec 1918)
My grandfather, Herbert Key, served as a reservist in the Boer War and WW1. He was discharged on the 24th June 1916 and returned home suffering from TB. He died on the 1st December 1918 in Stafford Infirmary. My father William Harry, who was Herbert's youngest child was seven years old when his father died.
Herbert was buried in Eccleshall's Holy Trinity Churchyard in an unmarked grave. I have been trying for a few years since my cousin Audrey showed me where he was buried, to get something done about putting his name on his grave. Herbert may not have died by bomb, bullet or bayonet, but he died as a result of having served his country no less than anyone else. It is time he was honoured accordingly.
Editor's Note:- His pension record, following his discharge in June 1916, states that he was being discharged because he was no longer physically fit enough. It confirms the above stating that the Tuberculosis was caused by exposure to the cold and wet and he had a chronic cough. He had enlisted on 7th December 1914 and, at the time, he was 45 years old with a wife, Sarah Alice (nee Talbot) who he had married in 1898, and 5 children.
