I am Nelson Hildreth but I was christened Oliver Nelson Hildreth. I was born in 1877 in Great Missenden and baptised in Prestwood on 23rd December 1877. My parents were William and Edith nee Cooper and my father was a blacksmith.
We lived in Great Missenden when I was small but by 1901 we had moved to Pole Cat Lane in Hughenden. I had quite a few brothers and sisters: George, Norah, Stanley, Alice, Roland, Daisy and Newman.
In 1894, when I was 17, I joined the Militia. You'd call it the Territorial Army today. My civilian occupation back then was as a blacksmith’s assistant. My record states that I was considered to be of good character, 5’4 inches tall with a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. On October 1st 1896 I attested to the Dorsetshire Regiment in High Wycombe and then served in the South African Campaign from 1899-1900. Quite a number of Wycombe men served in the Boer War and my skills as a blacksmith were no doubt seen as a bonus.
When I returned home I decided to try something different. By 1911 I was living in Devon and working as a butler for a well-to do gentleman’s family at Dartington Hall in Totnes.
I met and married Mary and we had six children. Life was good, but when the First World War broke out my life changed again. My parents were to have four of their sons serving in the war and it must have been a very worrying time for them, and for my wife Mary. By 1915 I was in the R.A.F attached to the 2nd Dorsetshire Regiment and based at Kidbrook which I believe later become known as No 1 Stores Depot.
In 1918, whilst I was at camp in Sidcup, I caught influenza which led to pneumonia and I became very ill. I died in the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich on 25th October, just one of the many casualties of the 1918 flu epidemic. My body was brought back to High Wycombe and I was buried with full military honours. Three volleys were fired over my grave and the Last Post was sounded.
The inscription on my headstone reads: “ ALL TEARS ARE VAIN WE CANNOT NOW RECALL
THEE BACK”
I am also remembered on the High Wycombe Hospital Memorial Plaque.
Researched by Ruth Bowler, Flackwell Local Area History Group
