Private. 8th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. Service No: 37149
Early life
Herbert was born on 27th January 1890 and the birth was registered in Keighley. His parents were James William Rushworth and Mary Rushworth and they had him baptised on 4th May that year at St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth.
His father James was a joiner and they were living in Stanbury at the time.
In the 1891 census he was just one year of age and living with his parents at 65, Stanbury. James was working as a joiner.
His sister Elizabeth was born towards the end of 1892.
By the 1901 census, Herbert was eleven years old and living at 86, Stanbury with his parents and his sister Elizabeth was eight. Their father James was now working as a joiner and builder. Herbert was almost certainly attending Stanbury Village School.
By 1911 they had moved away, to 32, Princess Street in Nelson, Lancashire. James was was employed as a joiner at a refuse destruction works for the Borough Council, Herbert was 21 and a cotton warp dresser and Elizabeth was 18 and a cotton weaver.
War service:
Herbert was living at 32, Princess Street when he enlisted in Nelson, Lancashire in May or June 1916, joining the 3rd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment and was later transferred to the 8th Battalion. Sadly there’s no service record for him and he had been in service less than a year when he died of his wounds on 9th July 1917.
He was buried in grave 40 of row D, at Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery in Belgium. His headstone bears the inscription ‘Loved, Remembered and Lamented.’ provided by his mother.
Herbert was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service. These would have been sent to his parents after the war, along with a Great War memorial plaque and scroll.
They also received his outstanding pay, a war gratuity of £3 and a dependant’s war pension of 15 shillings per week for life.
Source information:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Tax Valuation, 1910.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Keighley News archives in Keighley Library.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
