Soldier Record

Herbert England was like so many others who lied about his age so he could do his bit and serve his country joining the army before he was old enough. The sad thing was his army records show quite clearly they were altered to show an age of 20 years old - three years older than his true age. The recruitment officer must have known he was too young yet still enlisted him in to the army. Though his army records are too badly damaged to read where he served it is though he spent much of his time in Ypres. In December 1916 he was hospitalized with trench foot only to rejoin his unit two months later. Herbert was one of the lucky ones and came home at the end of the war but I can never remember him speaking of his experiences. Just a mere 20 years later he joined the Watford Home Guard to serve his country just one more time. Herbert is one of those unsung heroes, never spoke about his time at the front. After the Second World War he kept serving his country in another way and a way for which we all owed him dearly - working for Watford Borough Council helping keep the sewers of Watford flowing until the day he retired in the mid 1960s.