THE FORGOTTEN FALLEN
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HERBERT OWEN TODD Private 53125 18th Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment)
Died from Wounds aged 37 20th July 1917
Buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard, Hardwick, England |
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Herbert Owen Todd was born and lived in Hardwick before enlisting in Kilburn, London, where he had worked for a number of years. The 1891 census shows Herbert as the elder son of William and Sarah Todd, and he had two sisters at the time. However, the census for ten years earlier shows two older sisters who had probably left home by 1891. His father was an agricultural labourer, and they lived in a house called Sots Hole. His mother was a lacemaker. No record of him as been found in the 1901 census but by 1911 he is working as a Brewer's Labourer in London and living at 65 Dynham Road, West Hampstead, as a boarder with the Brown family and unmarried. He is known to have been with the East Surrey Regiment (20502). The Todd family can be traced through the Parish Registers in Hardwick from about 1780 when Herbert’s great grandfather Richard was born. He married Hannah Cosby in the Parish Church in 1809, and they had five children with Herbert’s grandfather John their second son, born in 1816. John married a Mary, and they had eight children with Herbert’s father William, a twin, with brother Stephen born on 28th February 1847. ----- Bucks Herald Report July 1917 HARDWICK - DEATH OF HERBERT TODD The many friends of Herbert Todd in Hardwick and neighbouring villages will hear with regret that he died in hospital at Liverpool on July 20th from wounds and following illness which necessitated his return from the front. He entered the army early in the spring of 1916 and after a very short spell of training passed over into France and took part in some of the fierce fighting of that time. It was some little satisfaction to his relatives to be able to bring the body from the north and lay it in the pretty churchyard of his native village on the sloping ground overlooking a valley of wood and meadow. There was a large gathering at the church and graveside including Mr. W Todd (father) and Mr. and Mrs. Noble, of Aylesbury; Mr. and Mrs. Mason of Hardwick; Mr and Mrs. Cox of Oving (brother-in-law and sister); representatives from the firm at Kilburn where the deceased had been employed for nearly twenty years, and many friends who had known him intimately from boyhood. Appropriate hymns were interspersed in the beautiful burial service, both in the church and at the graveside, and the organist, Mr. Rickard, played selections from the works of Handel and Mendelssohn. The grave was covered with many floral offerings. ----- Hardwick Churchyard contains the Commonwealth War Grave of Herbert Owen Todd in the south west corner.
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GO TO Forgotten Fallen list for more biographies of the men commemorated on the Weedon War Memorial.
