7990 Pte William Himmons, 1st Bn, Dorsetshire Regiment

7990 Pte William Himmons of the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment died of wounds on 3rd September 1914. William was a career soldier who had enlisted on 18th July 1906 at Winchester for nine years with the colours and three on the reserve. He was born at Thatcham, near Newbury in Berkshire and was living at Newbury at the time of his enlistment. He was 19 years and six months old and had been working as a labourer.

William's service record survives as a burnt document at the National Archives and from it we can see that at the time of his enlistment he was nearly five feet ten and a half inches tall, had a dark complexion, blue eyes and dark hair. "Church of England" was the religion noted for him.

William's record is quite badly damaged and a lot of papers appear to have been lost. However, we can see that he remained at the regimental depot until 8th December 1906 and was then posted to the 1st Battalion. There are a few entries on his regimental defaulter sheet, which though minor, at least place him in definite locations at various times during his early military career. On 26th August 1908 he was absent from the tattoo at Bulford Camp and didn't show up again until the 31st of August. On 29th June 1910 whilst the battalion was at Portsmouth, he overstayed his leave by 23 hours and also missed the parade as a result. He was awarded ten days confined to barracks as a punishment, a sentence that today seems extremely harsh. On 22nd November the same year, William was awarded a further ten days confined to barracks for "improper conduct in town". That was at Blackdown.

William was transferred to the army reserve on 30th June 1911 having served just under five years with the colours. It is not clear from his record why he was transferred on this date as by rights he should have remained with the colours until 1915. Nevertheless, he was recalled when war was declared and by 16th August 1914 he was in France with his regiment.

William's papers note on 28th August 1914 that he was "missing from battalion since 24/8/14" that he was a prisoner of war and that he had been admitted to a hospital in Mons. The hospital's name is incomplete (due to water damage to his papers) but appears to start with the words Comite de. There is a further note that he died in the same hospital on 3rd September 1914. This goes against information elsewhere on his papers that state he was killed in action at Warnes near Mons.

The image at the top of this post shows just how badly damaged William's papers are and it appears from it that there was a degree of uncertainty about his fate. Nevertheless, by 31st July 1915 the War Office was sufficiently confident to write that, "the unofficial report of the death of this soldier on 3rd September 1914 has been accepted as sufficient evidence for official purposes. Will you please notify the next of kin accordingly and prepare the usual papers."

William's next of kin was his widow, Florence Himmons (nee Gore) whom he had married at Newbury on the 5th October 1912. The couple had one child, a boy (name unclear from the service papers) who had been born on 1st April 1914 and who therefore never really knew his father. At the time of his enlistment, William had recorded his next of kin as his father (William), mother (Ellen) and brother (Harry), all living at 11 Adeys Building, York Road, Newbury.

Later, Florence would marry a Mr F Champ and there is a letter from him in William's file which he wrote to the military record office in Exeter in November 1921 enquiring whether Florence was entitled to the "death plate". There is no evident reply, but she would of course have been entitled to receive the memorial plaque, and there are signed acknowledgements from her for William's medals and the clasp for his 1914 Star.

William is buried in Hautrage Military Cemetery; grave reference I.A.10. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission states that, "the village of Hautrage was in German hands during almost the whole of the First World War. The military cemetery was begun by the Germans in August and September 1914, and in the summer of 1918 they brought into it a large number of British graves of 1914, mostly of the 2nd Cavalry and 5th Infantry Divisions, from the surrounding battlefields and local cemeteries."

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, WO 363 Service Record)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission