254674 Cpl. Herbert Edward Bicheno Hawkins British Army 1st/5th Btn Bedfordshire Regiment from:109 Ebberns Road, Apsley End, Hertfordshire (d.3rd Nov 1917) Herbert Hawkins was the younger brother of Henrietta Elizabeth Bicheno Hawkins, my grandmother, who often talked to me about him when I was a young child. His nickname for her was Net and he looked up to her as a mother figure.
Herbert was born in Finsbury Barracks, City Road, London in the spring of 1896, the son of Sergeant Major Edward Charles Hawkins of the 6th Battalion Royal Fusiliers and Henrietta Sarah Hawkins (nee Bicheno).
Herbert joined the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1914.
He served as corporal but at the time of his death he was acting sergeant. On 2nd of November 1917 the battalion took part in the dawn attack on the village of Sheik Hasan on the seaward side of the town of Gaza in Palestine. The attack was successful taking most of its objectives and capturing 182 prisoners. For the rest of the 2nd and 3rd November the battalion was under heavy shellfire and it is likely that it was during this period that Herbert was killed.
He is buried in the Gaza cemetery, Israel. I had the good fortune to visit Israel and Jordan in 2013 with a group from my local church. Needless to say we were not taken to Gaza which is sadly still a war torn area.
Herbert is also remembered on the war memorials at John Dickinson's Paper Mill where he worked and at St Mary's Church Apsley where the family worshipped and my parents were married and I myself was baptised.
I am pleased to know these details of the life of my great uncle Herbert and remember my grandma's stories with pride.
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