Bullard, David

David was the fourth son of Samuel and Ruth (nee Hayden), born in Thriplow, Cambridgeshire on 29 November 1887. He was a pupil of the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

David enlisted with the Royal Engineers, Railway Troops as a platelayer on 10 December 1915, Regimental Number 283797. He was re-engaged in June 1917 and served with the 265^th Railway Company, Regimental Number 289832. He saw active service in the Middle Eastern Theatre of War, Egypt and Palestine. He contracted enteric fever in Palestine at the end of 1918 and was invalided home.

David was eligible for the British War Medal, the Victory Medal

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

David married Frances Elizabeth Winter on 4 September 1909 in St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Hertfordshire. They had two sons, Hubert Samuel, born on 24 January 1910 and Douglas Jack, born 19 Feb 1920.

The 1939 census shows them living at Normans Cross, Huntingdonshire with David a relaying ganger with the LNER.

David died in Baldock, Hertfordshire on 13 March 1977.

David’s brothers, Arthur, Alfred, Leonard served in the War and survived but two brothers, Albert and Eli, were captured by the Germans at Cateau in May 1914 and spent the War in Doebritz Prisoner of War Camp. His brother Frederick, an agricultural labourer, was unfit for war and remained on the farm. His father, Samuel, served with the Hertfordshire Territorial Force and was billeted at home. All are commemorated in the Ashwell Cemetery, Hertfordshire.

Royston Crow 25 Oct 1918 Sapper David Bullard, railway employee at Baldock, now in Egypt, ill in Cairo with typhoid.