Herbert Neal
View Herbert on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Known information
Herbert Neal died just fifteen days after being sent to the front line. He was born at Hambleton on 19 November 1891, the son of Edward and Ruth Neal. The family later moved to Whissendine. Herbert was a farm worker before joining up with the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on 7 September 1914. He went out to France on 10 September the following year, and was killed in action at Loos a fortnight later, aged 23 (see contribution below for further information). He has no known grave, and is remembered on panel 34 of the Loos Memorial, named as H Neal. He is recorded in George Phillips' Rutland and the Great War as being called James Herbert Neal and being from Whissendine, but is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as Herbert Neal. However, there is no Neal on Whissendine's war memorial. But there is a Herbert Neale (with an "e") of the 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on Essendine's war memorial. If this is the same man, albeit with two mistakes on the plaque, it may have been that Herbert was working in Essendine before joining the army.
The photos of Herbert and his family are posted by his great nephew Geoffrey.
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User contributions
We went on a weeks visit with the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society, visiting the main places of action in the first few months of the war, and lots of different cemeteries, quite an emotional experience. We visited the Loos Memorial on the afternoon of the 20th May 2014 following a very heavy downpour, which had put us in an appropriately sombre mood for our visit. The Cemetery and Memorial stands in the open and flat countryside that the Battle of Loos was fought over. The Memorial bears the names of over 20,000 officers and men who died in this sector during WW1 who have no known grave, more than 14,000 of these died during the Battle of Loos. On the left hand wall about three quarters of the way down is panel 34, remembered on this panel is Private H Neal. Private Herbert Neal, 8th Lincolnshire Battalion, had landed in France 16 days before he was killed, lengthy forced marches brought them into the reserves for the assault at Loos, but left them too far behind to be of use on the first day, but were sent into action on the 26th September suffering appalling casualties. During the Battle of Loos the 8th Lincolnshire Battalion suffered 466 casualties out of a battalion strength of between 650-750. (The Battle of Loos, The Long, Long Trail Website). We remembered Herbert with a cross and poppy.
Rutland and The Battle of the Somme
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