Biography of Private Herbert Edward Batterham (3191)
4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Died 26th January 1915

Mother

• Name: Emma Tyler
• DOB: 15th December 1860
• Place Of Birth: Billingborough, Lincolnshire, England
• Marriage: 1883 Bourne District

Relatives in services

• Brother Fred also in the war in the York and Lancaster Regiment

Marriage

• No marriage for Herbert has been found and because of his age we can assume that he never had the opportunity to marry.

Newspaper Mentions

• Grantham Journal Saturday 13th May 1911
  SEMPRINGHAM.
  ACCIDENT:- A youngman, named Herbert Batterham, son of Mr. Edward Batterham, a foreman on the Great Northern Ruilway, who resides at Sempringham Gatehouse, met with an unfortunate accident while attending the May Statutes at Sleaford, on Monday.  The precise cause of the accident has not been definitely ascertained, but it is understood that he fell while riding or dismounting from a set of roundabouts and fractured one of his legs just above the ankle.  A doctor who saw the injury advised his removal to Lincoln Hospital, and this was done.  The sufferer was in farm service at Burton Pedwardine.

• Sleaford Gazette Saturday 13th February 1915
  Deaths.
  In Memiriam
  POINTON:- January 31st, Herbert Batterham, aged 26 years.

Military Records

Medals

• None found

Memorials

• UK:
• Sempringham, Roll of Honour in St Andrew Abbey Church

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
• In memory of Private Herbert Edward Batterham, 3191, 4th Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 26 January 1915 Age 26
• Son Edward and Emma Batterham, of 10, Dyke, Bourne.
• Remembered with honour, Sempringham (St Andrew) Church

© Picture taken by South Lincolnshire War Memorials

Military Service Timeline

Herbert was born in the Spring of 1889 to Edward Batterham originally of Cowbit, who was a Foremen and railway Platelayer and his wife Emma Tyler of Billingborough. The couple were married in 1883 and resided at Billingborough before moving to Sempringham and later to Dyke.

The couple had 11 children in all but had sadly lost one child before 1911.
Lillie Batterham, 1885, Billingborough
Alice Emma Batterham, 1886, Billingborough
Annie Batterham, 1888, Billingborough
Herbert Edward Batterham, 1889, Billingborough
Fred Batterham, 1891, Billingborough
May Batterham, 1893, Horbling
Lucy Batterham, 1895, Horbling
Bertie Robert Batterham, 1898, Horbling
Grove Batterham, 1900, Horbling
Thomas Victor Batterham, 1902, Sempringham

Herbert in 1891 was living with his parents at 13 Station Road Billingborough and then ten years later can be found with them living at the gatehouse in Fen Road Sempringham.
By 1911 Herbert was living with the Hollingworth family at Burton Gorse, Mareham Lane, Spanby, Lincolnshire. The census gives him an age of 21 and he is listed as a waggoner on farm.

Herbert would sign up for the Army in October 1914 and was posted to the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. Sadly Herbert’s records have not survived and the folloiwng has been pieced together from any surviving information.

The 4th Battalion had existed as a Territorial battalion before the war and concentrated in Lincoln in August 1914 as part of the Lincoln and Leicester Brigade of the North Midland Division (later 46th Division). They were moved to Belper and then Luton during their training.
As with many county territorial Battalions, the number of men joining would be much more than a single Battalion would need and thus newer recruits may have joined the second line Battalion, the 2nd / 4th. The idea was that the 2nd / 4th would feed men into the 1st / 4th as they were required, although in reality many of these 2nd line Battalions would eventually see service in their own right. Eventually a 3rd / 4th Battalion would be formed in 1915 as a training Battalion feeding both the 1st and 2nd line Battalions in the field.

We are not sure if Herbert trained with the 1st 4th or the 2nd 4th, which had formed at Lincoln on the 13th September 1914 and then moved to St. Albans to join the 177th Brigade of the 59th Division. It is most likely that he would have been posted to the 2nd / 4th but there is no documentary proof of this.

All we can say is that whilst training on Home Service, Herbet Batterham would become unwell and he was hospitalised.

Herbert died of pneumonia on the 26th January 1915 at the 4th Northern General Hospital, Lincoln, two months before his battalion were posted to France. He is buried in a family grave at St Andrew’s Parish Church in Sempringham.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
In memory of Private Herbert Edward Batterham, 3191, 4th Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 26 January 1915 Age 26. Son Edward and Emma Batterham, of 10, Dyke, Bourne. Remembered with honour, Sempringham (St Andrew) Church

The family can be found on the pension records as living at the Gatehouse and after the death of her Husband, Mrs Emma Batterham at 39 Dyke.

Sources

• WW1 Soldier’s Records (www.ancestry.co.uk)
• British Newspaper Archive.
• Fold 3
• Find My Past
• Genealogist
• Forces War Records
• British Army Service Numbers
• War Gratuity Calculator
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• National Archives – Battalion War Diaries
• General Registry Office