Colin Barnes Radford was born in Hemel Hempstead in the early part of 1898. He was the fifth surviving child of James Henry Radford and Mary Ann Sophia Barnes who had a large family of twelve children together. Colin’s siblings were: Harry, Charles, Ada, Annie, Frederick, Nellie and Aaron. Four other unnamed children died when young. Colin was born and grew up at 2 Half Moon Yard just off the High Street in Hemel Hempstead, where his father James was a ‘Canvas Sewer’ as well as a ‘Horse Collar Maker’. In 1911, Colin aged thirteen and having just left school, worked as a ‘Grocer’s Errand Boy’. Shortly afterwards however, he found employment with John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley Mills.

On the outbreak of war, Colin was too young at sixteen to enlist, but just over a year later he decided to try his luck. In June 1915 he made his way to Hertford, presumably where he knew he would not be known, and succeeded in joining the Hertfordshire Regiment. He was still only seventeen years old. It was not unusual for underage volunteers to try to enlist. Some 250,000 succeeded and although many were discovered shortly after joining, a significant number made it to the Front and fought and died in battle. The youngest verified volunteer to fight was Pte. Sidney George Lewis who enlisted aged twelve with the East Surrey Regiment in 1915. He fought at the Somme in 1916 aged thirteen, was discharged and sent home, but re-enlisted in 1918.

Colin was sent to Bury St. Edmunds where he underwent basic training and went to France a year later, still under the age threshold for overseas service. He was posted to the 1/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment and he joined his comrades in time to fight in the Somme Offensive. In 1916 he saw action at Thiepval Ridge in September and then Ancre Heights and Ancre in October and November all of which he survived.

In 1917 he moved with the Regiment to Belgium and by July was preparing to take part in the attack on Pilckem Ridge. The Battle of Pilckem Ridge was the opening action of the Third Battles of Ypres and it proved to be a bloody and costly encounter for the allies. The 1/1st Hertfordshires were no exception and in one day of difficult fighting, the Battalion incurred 429 casualties, Killed, Missing or Wounded.

Colin was amongst the fallen and died on Tuesday, 31st July 1917. His mother received a letter from his C.O., the contents of which were published in the Hemel Gazette.

He was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley where he had worked.

Colin is Remembered with Honour in Artillery Wood Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, where he is interred in Grave IV. F. 18.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

Colin was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.