This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in October/November 2003, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.

JOSEPH FRENCH

Joseph French was another of the 'true Pirton men' whose name is engraved on our War Memorial. Our village was the place where he was born, lived, went to school, worked in and finally left from, in order to fight 'For King and Country'.

On 15th February 1879, William Henry French, aged 31, married Mary Ann Reynolds, aged 22, at St. Mary's Church. They had probably known each other for a long while for both lived in Pirton, although we know William was born in Breachwood Green. William's father was Henry French, a groom probably looking after the horses, who by 1881 was living on the High Down estate.

At the time of their marriage William, like most men in the village, was a farm labourer; Mary a straw plaiter. Ten years after their marriage, their son Joseph was born on 14th April 1889. Sunday 4th August that year was a busy one at St. Mary's for there were five baptisms all administered by the Rector of Higher Gobion. Maybe Pirton's own Rev Loughborough was on holiday. William and Mary had nine children but only three survived: Kate, Annie and Joseph.

The next we know about Joseph and his family was when the Census was taken in 1901. By this time Joseph's father was a horse keeper on one of the local farms, probably Elm Tree Farm. His eldest daughter Kate, aged 18, also worked at that farm whilst Joseph, aged 11, was at the village school.

At some point the family moved into Holly Tree Cottage, which was probably owned by the Gurneys who had Elm Tree Farm opposite to them in Hambridge Way. This was one of the two cottages later made into one, lying just on the right in Hambridge Way, now the home of Sheila & John Brooks. However, at that time, the track which had been used for centuries as a route to Hitchin, was known not as Hambridge Way, but Millbrook Way, presumably because it led to the mill at Oughton Head.

Having left the village school, Joseph almost certainly took up work as a farm labourer. He continued to live with his parents, became an active member of the village football team but remained unmarried. One of Joseph's sisters, Annie, was the mother of Brenda Dawson who now lives in Royal Oak Lane. It is thanks to Brenda and her sister Barbara Wilshere that we have much of the information for this article.

Joseph together with Arthur Castle, the father of Brenda and Barbara, enlisted in Hitchin on August 4th 1914. Not only was this the beginning of the ‘War to end All Wars' but, to the day, the 25th anniversary of Joseph's baptism. How Pirton and the world had changed in that time!

From being a simple agricultural community where few men would normally have moved away from the locality, living a peaceful, if poor, existence, they found themselves torn from home and plunged into a monstrous war. Joseph became Private 14223 of 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment. We know Brenda's father was serving in France two months later and it is likely that Joseph was too. Arthur Castle received the coveted Mons Star -probably Joseph did, too.

The War that 'was to end by Christmas 1914' dragged on and by 1916 the number of causalities had reached appalling numbers. It is probable that Joseph spent all, or virtually all, this time in France. The huge offensive ordered by the British Commander, Earl Haig, and which started on 1st July became known as the Battle of the Somme. It had already claimed the life of one Pirton soldier (Private Frank Handscombe) and would be the killing-field of others. Monday 4th September was a bad day for the British Army with 669 men killed on that single day. In the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment alone 40 men died; 15 the day before and 23 the following day. On that day Joseph was attending one of the many simple Field First Aid posts when a German shell made a direct hit. Joseph and all within the First Aid post were killed.

It seems that he was buried in a Military Cemetery which was it self fought over and the graves destroyed. Brenda recalls that her nephew searched but could not find a grave or memorial for Joseph French. However, Barbara, Brenda's sister, remembers her grandparents speaking of Thiepval. Now, thanks to the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, we know that he is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial in the Somme, France (Pier & Face 2C I), a memorial to be shared by another Pirton man, Alfred Raymond Jenkins of whom we also write this month. Joseph's grandfather, William French, wrote in his Bible, 'Joseph dide in France, September 4th, aged 27'

Brenda and Barbara well remember an 'award' given to her grandparents, a circular copper disc bearing the words 'He died for Freedom and Honour'; given to the relatives of all who lost their lives in the Great War. Joseph's mother died in 1931 and his father in 1935 - both are buried in St. Mary's churchyard.

*** For help with this article we thank: Brenda Dawson, Barbara Wilshere, Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Jonty Wild www.pirton.org.uk, Michael Newbery and staff at Hitchin Library


Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk

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