Herbert Orchard was born in Boxmoor, Herts on Wednesday, 7th April 1897 and baptised in St John’s Church in the village on Wednesday, 5th May a month after he came into the world. Herbert was the youngest of three children born to Robert Orchard and Emma Mallord and his older siblings were Ethel Mary and Robert. Ethel died aged three in 1893 and his mother Emma died in 1901 when Herbert was only four years old. His older brother Robert died in 1912 aged twenty.

He also had an older step-sister Nellie (Lilian) who married George Bates in 1906 and by 1911 they had moved into the Orchard family home at 30 St John’s Road in Boxmoor. Herbert’s brother-in-law George was killed only eight weeks after him in the Battle of Picklem Ridge in August 1917. His biography also appears on this site.

Herbert started his education in Boxmoor JMI on 8th February 1904 along with 35 other boys. Amongst his schoolmates were: Alfred Gash, Frederick Sharp, George Ivory, Harry (Henry) Charge, William Plummer and Frederick Leach. Like Herbert these young. boys were destined to fall in the Great War. Their stories are also on this site.

On leaving school on 23rd March 1910, Herbert started work as a wood turner in Boxmoor (Foster’s) Saw Mills where his father and older brother worked. He left the saw mills the following year when he obtained a job as an assistant in the card making department in Apsley Mills with John Dickinson and Co. Limited.

When war broke out Herbert was still to young to enlist aged seventeen but a few months after his next birthday he went to Hertford where he attested and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment on the 14th August 1915. He declared his age as "19 years and 2 months", although he was in fact a year younger, but his false declaration meant he could be sent overseas as soon as he finished training rather than having to wait another year.

On enlistment he was described as "C of E, 5 feet 9 inches, with normal vision and satisfactory physical development", declared fit for service and immediately sent to train with his regiment. It would be a full year before Herbert was sent to France, disembarking at Boulogne on the 31st August 1916, where he was transferred to the 1/4 York & Lancaster Regiment.

He had joined the Regiment just as it was about to move away from the Somme where it had been part of the follow-up assault wave in that brutal campaign. Over the next six months the 1/4 York & Lancaster moved north, to Neuve-Chapelle and Herbert saw action in the trenches until in June 1917 the following entry is recorded in the Battalion War Diaries: “FOSSE June 12 – A raiding party of 2 ½ companies (12 officers and 336 O.R) under Major J.E.D. STICKNEY entered the enemy’s trenches in M.30.C., capturing 13 prisoners of the 262nd Reserve Infantry Regiment. Casualties - 2nd Lt. A.P. O’DONNELL killed; 2nd Lts. W. RYAN and E. WILLIAMS wounded; O.R. 19 killed 55 wounded and 9 missing”

Night-time trench raids on enemy positions were a common tactic during the war and initially these were carried out by small teams. The purpose of the raids included amongst other things; gathering intelligence, reconnaissance or the capture of prisoners.  As the War progressed the raiding parties increased in scale as can be seen from the account above which reports the involvement of 348 men. They were dangerous and unpopular amongst the troops.

It was during this raid on Tuesday, 12th June 1917 that Herbert was killed.

He is commemorated on the memorial plaque in St John’s church in Boxmoor.

Herbert’s family were presented with ‘The Memorial Plaque’ which was issued after the Great War to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the conflict. The plaques, about 4.75 inches (120 mm) in diameter, were cast in bronze, and came to be known as the "Dead Man’s Penny", because of the similarity in appearance to the much smaller penny coin. They were issued in a pack with a commemorative scroll from King George V; though sometimes the letter and scroll were sent first.

Herbert is Remembered with Honour on the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France on Panels 105 and 106.

He was only 20 years old when he died.

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