8th (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Herbert Francis King was the youngest of 12 children born to George and Sarah King of Vicarage Street, Painswick. A baptism record of 7 August 1892 shows Francis Herbert born on 20 May 1892 to Sarah and George King. I assume this is the same man. The godparents were listed as Reuben West, George King and Clara Lewis.
George was born in Painswick and Sarah in Cheltenham. I have been unable to find a marriage record for them but their first child was born approximately in 1870. Sarah, a widow by the 1901 Census, states in 1911, that she has been married for 29 years. She had given birth to 12 children, one of which had died. I cannot be sure when George died but there is a possible match for 1897.
It appears that the family lived in Vicarage Street, Painswick throughout the decades. In 1871, 27-year-old George gave his occupation as ‘plasterer/journeyman’. They had one child, Alfred aged one.
By 1901, there were eight children still at home plus Sarah’s two-year-old granddaughter, Nora Gyde, who I believe to be the daughter of Alice who had married William Gyde. Fred, the eldest of the siblings, was a gardener whilst the other four children working, were all employed at the local pin mill.
The 1911 Census shows Herbert living with his Mother and brother Walter aged 28, and sister Maggie aged 20. Sarah stated that she was blind at 59. All three siblings were working at the pin mill.
Ancestry has a record of Walter enlisting with the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1900 aged 18. His number was 5933. He married in 1912 giving his occupation as ‘packer’.
There are two military records for Corporal King. I searched under Herbert Francis, Francis Herbert and BF King, which is the record on the grave registration form. There is a British Army Medal Rolls Index card (1914-20) on Ancestry under the name of ‘Bertic’ – Bertie. It shows that Corporal King went to France on 18 July 1915 – the date the 8th Glosters first went abroad. The second document is an entry on the UK, Army Registers of Soldier’s Effects 1901-1929 which stated that he died at the 1st Eastern General Hospital Cambridge. The payments were shared between 10 siblings there is no mention of his mother, Sarah whom I assumed had died by that date. There is a Sarah King registered in the Stroud death register for 1913 which matches her age.
The 8th Glosters (57 Brigade 19 Division) were in action in the Somme Offensive of 1916. They took part in the attack and capture of La Boiselle on 3 July and were also heavily involved in the area of High Wood on 22 July and 30 July. According to a report of his funeral in the Stroud News of 6 October 1916, Bertie King was wounded in both legs during a night attack and was forced to shelter in a shell hole and crawled back to the British lines the following day. If this is accurate then it points to him being wounded on the night of 22/23 July. The battalion War Diary states that the battalion relieved the 10th Worcester in the front line at 9.30pm and prepared to attack the German switch-line cutting through the north of High Wood and running south of Martinpuich, along with the 10th Royal Warwicks and 7th South Lancashires. They attacked at 1am. The attack failed and the battalion sustained 14 casualties amongst its officers (killed, wounded or missing), which included the CO, Lieutenant Colonel de Wiart who suffered a gun shot wound to the neck. Casualties to other ranks numbered 186.
Given his relatively low service number, it can be assumed that King volunteered for ‘Lord Kitchener’s Army’ in the autumn of 1914: his entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War states he enlisted in Stroud.
Corporal Herbert Francis King died on 27 September 1916; he was 23 years old. He was buried at Painswick Cemetery and has a CWGC headstone. He is commemorated on the Painswick War Memorial.
Researched by Helen Wollington with additions from Graham Adams April 2020