4th Battalion, Coldstream Guards (Pioneers)
Research into Private Gardiner’s war service is hampered by the almost total lack of surviving information. The Battalion War Diary of the 4th Coldstream Guards (NA ref: WO 95/1206/2) is unusual in that is does list the names and numbers of Other Ranks killed and wounded. There is an entry for 11 July 1918 stating the Pte. Gardiner (No. 2 Coy.) was sent to hospital as sick.
Herbert Clement Gardiner was born in 1888 at Duntisbourne Rouse, Gloucestershire and was baptised at Sapperton Parish Church on 24 February 1889. His parents were Mark (1833-1899), a carpenter and his wife Martha (née Coates; 1841-1915) and he was one of eight children, of whom six were living by the time of the 1911 census.
It would appear that, up until the time when he joined the Army, Herbert lived all his life in Sapperton. By 1901 his father had died and his mother was a sub-postmistress at the Sapperton Post Office, where Herbert was one of three children living at home. Ten years hence his mother was still the sub-postmistress and Herbert and sister Mary lived with her. Herbert was employed as a carpenter and his sister as a ‘letter carrier’.
The number given to Herbert (15504) when he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards, is in the series issued in February 1915, so he appears to be an early war volunteer. In the absence of any Army Service Record, we know that he was first posted abroad, to France and Flanders, on 15 December
1915, where he joined up with the 4th Battalion, who were Pioneers, employed on various construction works, including trench excavation. Possibly his carpentry skills were put to good use.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects (RSE), kept at the National Army Museum, states that he served with the 8th (Reserve) Company, however, this may not have been the company with which he served whilst ‘in the field’. It is from this register that we know that Herbert died on 29 November 1918 at the 4th Scottish General Hospital, Glasgow, which was the Stobhill Hospital and had been taken over by the military during the war. How, why and when he came to be there is not known and the cause of death, at the age of 30, can only be verified by the sight of a death certificate. It is possible that he suffered injuries in the final months of the war or that the sickness referred to in the War Diary entry of 11 July 1918 eventually proved fatal.
His mother had died in February 1915, about the time of his enlistment: possibly the two events were connected? The RSE notes that the monies due to him after his death were shared equally amongst his five siblings.
Private Herbert Clement Gardiner is buried in Sapperton (St Kenelm) Churchyard, where a private or family headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Sapperton and Frampton Mansell War Memorial, inside St Luke’s Church, Frampton Mansell.
Researched by Graham Adams 31 December 2020