David King was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex in the Spring of 1897. His father was William Harry King and his mother Mary Jane Atkins. David had seven siblings who were: Rose, Harry, Annie, John, Edward, Thomas and Alfred. William King was a ‘Canal Boatman’ from a well-known family of ‘Boatmen’ from Berkhamsted and David, his older brother Harry and their younger siblings grew up in Apsley where their father plied his trade. By 1911 the family lived on Durrant’s Hill close to the wharf at Frogmore End and both David and his brother Harry were working in Nash Mills with John Dickinson & Co. Limited.

On the outbreak of war David, aged seventeen, was too young to volunteer and it was to be another year when, under the Group System (Derby Scheme), both he and Harry enlisted in November 1915. Due to their age difference they were called up two months apart, Harry in January 1916 and David in March. Both men had enlisted with the Hertfordshire Regiment and both ended up training together at Bury St. Edmunds.

When they left for France, they were both posted to the 1/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, no.7 Platoon, 2 Company. They arrived in France just in time to fight in the final phase of the Somme offensive at the Battle of Ancre. By February 1917 the Battalion had moved to Belgium and was positioned in the vicinity of Ypres and for the next few moths David and Harry were engaged in the trenches or in night-time raiding parties.

In early June they sent a postcard home to their youngest brother Alf. The card carried the slogan “Who’s afraid” and on the back they wrote “To Alf with love from Harry and David.” This was to be David’s last contact with his family at home. On 31st July the 1/1st Hertfordshires attacked Pilckem Ridge near Ypres in what turned out to be a short but bloody engagement. In one day, 459 me were Killed, Wounded or posted Missing, many in the first few hours of the attack.

Harry was wounded but his younger brother David was not so fortunate. He was posted missing, although it seems the two brothers were together right to the end as Harry makes clear when he wrote to his family in 1918 saying: “I was the last one to see David alive, but what happened that day I can hardly remember for I was nearly out of my mind, if he is dead, I believe he has gone to heaven, for a better living lad I never knew.” Official confirmation of David’s death was finally received by his family in October 1918.

He was killed on Tuesday, 31st July 1917.

Harry recovered from his wounds but was only fit enough to serve in the Royal Defence Corps, which he joined sometime in 1918.

David was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley.

David is Remembered with Honour on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 54 and 56.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

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