Maddams, Herbert George Priest

Herbert was born on in 1889 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire and baptised on 5 May of that year. He was the third son of Thomas Priest Maddams and Kate Elizabeth (nee Cowley) Maddams. Herbert was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell, Hertfordshire.

 Herbert enlisted on 19^tJanuary 1907 at Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.  The 1911 census shows him in barracks with the ‘Arabia, Cyprus and Gibralta’ troops. During WWI Herbert was a Lance Sergeant with the Suffolk Regiment 4th Battalion, Regimental number 7514.  He served in the Western European Theatre of War, France and Flanders and died of wounds on 24 November 1917.

 Herbert was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal

Herbert is buried in the Nine Elms British Cemetery, Poperinge, Arrondissement Ieper (Ypres), West Flanders, Belgium, and is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour and the Ashwell War Memorial.

Banns for marriage to Anne Anthony Cummings were read in November 1913 in Greenwich, Kent but the marriage only took on 11 May 1915 at Ashwell, Hertfordshire. They had two children, Frank Thomas Maddams born 2 April 1916 and Eileen Ida Maddams born 11 August 1917.