Herbert John Reed came to Chelmsford from Great Hallingbury. He joined the army and died from wounds in April 1918. His parents lived in Rochford Road. A brother was killed in an air raid on Chelmsford in 1941.

Herbert was born in Great Hallingbury in 1899, the eldest child of Samuel John Amos Reed and Fanny Reed (nee Eldred). His father had been born in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire in 1869; his mother in Little Hallingbury in 1868. The couple married in 1898 in Hertfordshire.

Herbert’s five siblings (all born in in Great Hallingbury) were Reginald Charles Samuel Reed (1901-1965), Albert Edward Reed (1902-1904), Emily Reed (born c1904), Mary Reed (born c1909) and Benjamin George Reed (born in 1910).

The 1901 census found Herbert, aged two, living with his parents and brother near the brook in Great Hallingbury. His father was employed as a malt-maker. A decade later the 1911 census found Herbert living with his parents, siblings and a boarder in Great Hallingbury.

Herbert enlisted at Chelmsford and served as 6751 in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He died from wounds on 17th April 1918 while serving as Lance Corporal 43896 in the 8th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was aged 19. He is buried at Grevillers British Cemetery, three kilometres from Bapaume, Pas de Calais in France (grave: XII. F. 36).

Herbert is commemorated on the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford, and the Moulsham Parish Memorial, St John’s Church, Moulsham. He was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

The 1918 register of electors listed Herbert’s parents 20 Rochford Road, Chelmsford. His father died in 1927.

In 1941 Herbert’s brother Benjamin George Reed was killed in an air raid on Marconi’s factory in Chelmsford.

Herbert’s mother died in 1946. Their old house was demolished after the second world war.

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