1914        1918
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND GRATEFUL
MEMORY OF

LT COL. THOMAS RICHARD EVANS B.A. D.S.O.
WALTER BAYLEY                   ALFRED E. HICKMAN
JAMES T. NEVILLE                      CHARLES ROGERS
HENRY JARVIS                                  REGINALD LEES
HERBERT DERRY              BERTRAM T. HURLOCK

WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR
GOD, KING AND COUNTRY

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Richard Evans was born on 27th January 1884 in Llanwddyn, Montgomeryshire, in Wales. He was the son of Hugh Llewellyn Evans and his wife Mary. At the time of the 1891 census, Thomas had 4 younger siblings, sister Margaret Jane Evans and brothers Evan John Evans, Hugh Llewellyn Evans and William Samuel Evans. Other siblings followed. In the first quarter of 1907, Thomas married Hirell Catherine Douglas Young at Romford in Essex, and, by the time of the 1911 census, the couple were living at 13 Victoria Road, Dagenham, Essex with their two children, daughter Olwen Evans (born in 1908) and son Eivion Evans (born in 1911). Thomas was then working as a Civil Service Clerk with H.M. Customs Service. In 1916, Thomas graduated with a B.A. degree from Birkbeck College, University of London; it has been estimated that one in four of the staff and students from Birkbeck who served in the Great War did not survive it. Thomas served as a Captain with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, with whom he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel; he was then attached - as Lieutenant Colonel to the 1/6th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment. He was serving with them when he was killed in action on 3rd October 1918. He is buried at Bellicourt British CemeteryCWGC Cemetery, Aisne in France, grave reference III. D. 5. Thomas was posthumously awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In 1919, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

34004 Rifleman Bertram Thomas Hurlock was the son of Thomas and Mary Hurlock of 4 Smith Street, Coventry. Thomas Hurlock and Mary Ann Banks had married at All Saints Parish Church, Newington, on 17th August 1884. Bertram was born in Camberwell, Surrey, on 31 August 1885, and attended St. John and All Saints Infants School in Lambeth. As of 28th October 1902, he began working as an postman in the Norwood district of London (as announced in The London Gazette, page 6913, edition date 31st October 1902). At the time of the 1911 census, he was still working as a postman and was living in Argylle Road, Mile End. Bertram enlisted at Stepney in London and served with the 16th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He died on 26 December 1916 at No. 3 Stationary Hospital, Rouen, France, the result of trench hands and feet. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, grave reference O. III. B. 4.

The link to Gentleshaw is far from clear. However, Bertram’s French death certificate - shown here courtesy of Ancestry - states that he was previously domiciled in Horsley Lane, Upper Longdon, having been born in Clerkenwell to Thomas and May Hurlock.  

15527 Private Herbert Derry was born in in 1888 and was baptised on 28th August 1888 at Christ Church, Gentleshaw. He was the second son of Herbert Derry and Jane Howells Ward who had married at Christ Church, Gentleshaw on 29th March 1880. Jane and Herbert had 9 children, daughters Louisa, Florence, Annie, Olive and Margaret Winifred Derry, and sons Arthur, Herbert, Albert Edward and Maurice Derry . Private Herbert Derry was 27 years old when died on 11th July 1916 of the wounds he sustained fighting for his country with the 7th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He is buried at Christ Church, Gentleshaw and is remembered with honour on the Gentleshaw War Memorial.