Herman CRAVEN

25851, Private. b. 1891, Bradford d. Wed. 5th June 1918 (aged 27).

Herman was the son of William and Emily Craven. The 1911 census shows the family living at 5 Victoria Street, Clayton with his younger brother Rennie Craven, an elder step sister Elizabeth and younger sister Laura. The 1911 census shows Herman, aged 20 working as an invoice clerk at S. Mitchell and Co. Paper Merchants.

He married Ida Ingham, a local girl, at the beginning of 1916, presumably being given leave to get married. Ida was living with her parents and Herman gave her address, 28 Station Road, Clayton, as his address in England.

Herman’s service record shows that he had signed up voluntarily in 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war and had joined the (Duke of Wellington’s) West Riding Regiment. It was not uncommon to be transferred and he was subsequently transferred to the York and Lancaster Regiment and finally, later in 1914 to the Machine Gun Corps. He continued with MGC through his training before embarking for France in August 1916 as one of the reinforcements, following the disastrous Somme Offensive of July 1916.

Herman travelled back to Britain to recover and after convalescence he was sent back to the front line and re-joined the Machine Gun Corps in its 50^th Battalion which had been posted to a relatively weak part of the line of trenches, just east of Paris.

Herman was unfortunate as the Germans had chosen this area for a massive offensive, which became known as the Third Battle of Aisne. Unbeknown to the British and French, the Germans had moved up sufficient troops to outnumber the defendants 4 to 1. On the 27^th May 1918, 4,000 artillery pieces opened fire to saturate the defenders with shells and they followed this up with a gas attack before their infantry attacked and forced the Allies to retreat. During the next four days 50,000 prisoners were taken by the Germans, one of whom was Herman, and he was declared missing in action. Allied reinforcements eventually halted the German advance.

It took the relevant authorities nearly two months to notify his parents of his capture, presumably because they were overwhelmed by the enormous numbers of casualties.

Herman was transported to Germany, to Hamburg, where he was to be interned in a prisoner-of-war camp. Unfortunately, he became ill whilst travelling and died in Joseph-Stift Hospital shortly after arriving in the camp on 5^th June 1918. He was buried in the local cemetery. There must be a possibility that the illness he suffered was the result of a gas attack.

Herman’s parents, William and Emily Craven had received a letter from Herman shortly after he was captured, saying he was alright and being well treated. His parents had spoken to the local paper at the beginning of August 1918, reassuring Herman’s friends that he was a prisoner of war.

However, again owing to the vast number of British POW to be processed it took the British Red Cross nearly three months to let the family know of his death. Little did they know that in fact, Herman had died two months previously. The family were eventually informed of his death in September 1918.

Herman is buried at Hamburg Cemetery, his grave is inscribed ‘Until the day dawns and the shadows flee away’.

This note from International Committee of Red Cross (I.C.R.C.) on IWM life histories for Herman Craven has details of Herman’s death and whereabouts he died. From the handwritten note it appears that Herman died on 5.6.18 in the reserve hospital at Celle, Section Joseph-Stift. Celle is in Lower Saxony and the hospital specialised in eye wounds.

His wife Ida is shown on 1939 registration census as still living at her family home at 28 Station Road, with her mother Harriet. Ida died in 1972 aged 85.

Herman’s younger brother, Rennie also served in WW1. There appears to be two spellings of Rennies first name, Rennie as on census and in UK Register of Soldiers Effects and Renny Craven as listed in CWGC records, this is presumably a typing error or known name. One link tying the two brothers together is that on Rennies marriage to Eva Woodhead , the marriage certificate shows Laura Annie Craven as a witness. Laura Annie being also listed on 1911 census as Rennie and Hermans sister, so linking the two brothers

Rennies page on ‘Clayton Remembers’ can be found here.

With grateful thanks to Ian Hepworth, who contacted me with his research that threw new light on Herman Cravens life.