According to Soldiers Died in The Great War, 712 officers and men serving with the British Army died on 20th October 1914, one hundred years ago today.
L/9340 Private Herbert Edward Crundwell of the 2nd Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) is noted as one of these casualties but in fact he actually died of wounds (a gunshot wound to his right eye) at the Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich on the 20th November 1914.
Surviving papers in WO 363 reveal that Herbert was 18 years and eight months old and working as a labourer when he attested with the Queen's on 11th May 1908. He was five feet, four inches tall with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and red hair. He joined the regiment at Chatham and after four months' basic training at the Depot, was posted to the 2nd Battalion. He subsequently saw service in Gibraltar, Bermuda and South Africa. He arrived in France on the 14th October 1914.
Another man named Crundwell did die four days later on the 24th October 1914 and he was 7533 Corporal Henry Crundwell of the 2nd South Lancashire Regiment. Service papers do not survive for this man but his regimental number indicates that he joined the regiment in November or December 1904 and therefore was probably on the Army Reserve when Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914. His medal index card indicates that he arrived overseas on the 8th September 1914, nearly a month after the battalion had arrived as a complete unit at Le Havre on 14th August. The annotation on his card, "P D" means "Presumed Dead" and as befits this status, Henry has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 23 of the Le Touret Memorial.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Medal index cards courtesy Ancestry.
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