Cpl Herbert William Pope

Herbert was born in about 1877 in Marylebone, London. He married Fanny Pope in 1898 and got a job as a groom. They had one son together, Ernest, born in 1903, and shortly afterwards moved to Leighton Buzzard. While living in Leighton Buzzard, Herbert worked as a groom at a stable for hunting horses.

By the time the first world war had broken out, the family had moved again to Weybridge in Surrey. He was called up in March 1915, and on 22nd March he went to Chertsey town hall for his medical inspection. A few days later he was posted to Romsey Remount Depot. He would have been one of the first soldiers at this depot, which had been recently finished and existed to break in young horses before sending them to the front - Herbert's previous career as a groom was perfect for this.

Herbert remained at this camp training horses for the course of the war, an unusual thing, as many of his colleages would be drafted to the front as more men were required and the age for drafting was extended.

In 1918 he was ill with influenza, and in December that year with pneumonia. Following the pneumonia he was unfortunately diagnosed with tuberculosis and discharged in April 1919. He was recommended to go to a hospital to be treated and that hospital was at Warley, where he would sadly die from tuberculois in November 1918.