Andrew Slough was born in Boxmoor, Herts on Wednesday, 2nd June 1897 the twelfth child of Henry Isaac Slough and Emily Payne. Henry and Emily had a large family of thirteen children who were: Julia, Ethel, Harry, Robert, Margaret, Arthur, Beatrice, Richard, Albert Joseph, Edward, Gertrude, Andrew and the youngest Hilda.

Andrew’s brothers Robert, Albert and Edward also fought in the Great War. Edward survived the conflict, but Albert was killed in France just six weeks before Andrew’s death and Robert was killed in 1918. Their biographies are also on this site.

The Sloughs originated from St. Albans and Andrew’s father Henry, a ‘Machine Fitter’, brought them all to Boxmoor in 1885 when he started a job at Dickinson & Co. Limited. By the time Andrew was born in 1897 the family were living on London Road in the Two Waters area of Boxmoor where five of the seven children still at home were attending school.

In 1901, Andrew’s brother Richard died aged eleven and five years later in 1906, tragedy once more overtook the family when his mother Emily died aged fifty-two. Andrew started school the year before his mother’s death and attended Two Waters British School, beginning on the 1st February 1905 and leaving on the 9th February 1912 aged fourteen to start work with Dickinson & Co. Limited at Apsley Mills.

When war broke out, Andrew enlisted in October 1914 attesting at Holborn in London. He joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was posted to the 15th Battalion known as the ‘1st London Welch’ which had been formed at London on 20 October 1914.

After initial training in the London area the battalion came under orders of 128th Brigade, 43rd Division in December at Llandudno. This was renamed the 113th Brigade, 38th (Welch) Division the following April and by August 1915 Andrew was at Winchester to complete his training.

He was mobilised with the Battalion and sent to France sailing from Southampton aboard TS (Turbine Steamer) Queen Alexandra, a ship which would later ram and sink the German Imperial Navy's U-Boat UC-78 off the French coast at Cherbourg on 9 May 1918.

Andrew disembarked at Le Havre on the 3rd December 1915 and for the next few weeks continued to train and receive instruction until going into the trenches for the first time on the 19th December, relieving the 1st Scots and 3rd Grenadier Guards at La Gorgue eight miles west of Armentières.

This pattern continued throughout 1916, without significant action, until the 10th July when the Division received orders to attack Mametz Wood. 

The wood was heavily fortified and difficult to capture, but it was of key importance in the Battle of the Somme. The battle started on the 5th July 1916 and lasted for just over five days and for the Welch soldiers it was the first significant action they had seen.

The 38th (Welch) Division paved the way for control of the wood, but during a bloody five-day battle it incurred 3,993 casualties which, put the division out of action for almost a year. The 15th Battalion Welch Fusiliers suffered 180 casualties in the assault. Andrew was killed towards the end of the battle on 11th July 1916.

The Hemel Gazette reported his death which followed only six weeks after his brother Albert had been lost when the HMS Queen Mary was sunk at the Battle of Jutland.

Andrew is commemorated on the Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley.

Andrew is Remembered with Honour in the London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave X.E.23.

He was 19 years old when he died.

Andrew was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.