Friends of Hastings Cemetery

ED H26 Herbert Edgar Howell.

He is commemorated on the family grave of John Howell Junior.  He was the second son of John and Lilla Howell and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd East Lancashire Regiment.  He was killed in action near Fromelles on 9th May 1915 at the 25.

He was born in Hastings in 1890.  In the 1901 census his father was still alive and listed as a solicitor, the family lived in Rothesay, Clyde Road.

In 1911 Herbert  lived in Herne Hill, London with his widowed mother and three brothers and a sister.  He was a clerk in a flour merchant’s.  All the children bar the youngest worked, even his sister (as a saleswoman in a costumier’s) so perhaps times were not easy, despite his father’s and grandfather’s fame as builders of grand buildings.

He joined the Territorial Army on 5 November 1912, when living at 120, Palace Road, Tulse Hill.  He was Private 1109, 28th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment, (Artists Rifles).  He was embodied (i.e. became a full-time soldier) on 8 August 1914. He arrived in France on 26th October 1914 and was promoted to Lance Corporal in the field on 15 December 1914.  However he reverted to Private at his own request 15 February 1915 but on 20 March 1915 he was promoted to temporary Second Lieutenant at Bailleul, and posted to 2nd East Lancashire Regiment. He was killed in action at Aubers Ridge in France less than two months later, on 9 May 1915. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.

The Battle of Aubers

9 May 1915

He left no will and Letters of Administration were granted to his mother, Mrs Lilla Howell. She received a pension of £24 per annum as a dependent of a deceased officer.

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Howell, Herbert Edgar