Herbert Christmas was born in Hemel Hempstead in 1881 to Walter Christmas and Frances Ann Reeve. He had an older brother Walter Francis and a younger one, Ernest John. Herbert’s father Walter owned a coach building works originally started by his older brother Thomas in 1870. He was heavily involved in the introduction of the motor car to Hemel Hempstead and ran a front page advertisement for his business in the Hemel Gazette for many years.

Herbert worked for his father’s business and became a ‘Carriage and Motor Body Builder’. He was initiated into the King Henry the Eighth lodge of the Freemasons in May 1910 along with his two brothers. The Lodge contained many of the great and good of Hemel Hempstead citizenry at the time including: Lovel Smeathman, Alderman and ex-Mayor; Arthur East, timber merchant; Francis Bailey of Boxmoor Iron Works and the Reverend Augustus Hollis of St. John the Baptist church in Great Gaddesden. Herbert is recorded on the 1911 census as being in ‘Fair’ health, possibly he suffered from an underlying medical condition which was not debilitating, but may have affected his fitness for front line service.

He was called up under the Military Service Act and attested at Hemel Hempstead on 31st March 1916, enlisting with the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.) and was posted to train with the Balloon Section as a 2nd Air Mechanic. This was a specialist unit in the Army and part of the nascent R.F.C. which required specialist training. This involved techniques in strict co-ordination and a high level of discipline, since the balloon on the ground could be an exceedingly dangerous object if not kept under full control at all times. Recruits tended to come from technical occupations similar to Herbert’s work as a coach builder. The first British ‘Kite’ Balloon Section arrived on the 8th May 1915 in the Aubers Ridge Sector, France. Kite balloons were usually located three miles behind the front lines at a distance of between twelve and fifteen miles from each other.

At these bases the crews would await suitable wind and weather conditions so the observation balloons could ascend bearing a tethering cable and a telephone line. They operated at altitudes of 3,000 to 4,000 feet and sometimes a group of three or four balloons were sent aloft simultaneously. These operating conditions normally took the tethered balloons clear of effective small arms and artillery fire, however as the war progressed, German air aces targeted, not only the balloons, but the men on the ground. Due to the paucity of Balloon Sections, and the constant need for the vital function they performed, the troops manning them routinely spent long periods in the War Zone. They did not benefit from the relief patterns of the infantry. The observers who ascended in the balloons came to be known as "Balloonatics".

It is not known where in France Herbert served, but he was posted to 5 Balloon Section and went overseas in 1916. His service with the R.F.C. ended when he was transferred to the 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on the 2nd September 1917 and went into the front line near Ypres. He was transferred as part of an effort to rebuild depleted forces after the Arras Offensive and as the Third Battle of Ypres entered its final stages. The 7th Lincolnshires had lost a third of its fighting strength in the latter stages of the Battle of Arras and Herbert joined with 148 other drafts on the 23rd September 1917.

The Battalion moved to Belgium on the 4th October and six days later Herbert was in the trenches for the first time in the war. He fought in the First Battle of Passchendaele. On the 12th October the battle began and the Battalion jumped off at ‘zero’ hour, 4.25am. Within three hours of desperate fighting, the final objectives were reached and the rest of the day was spent digging in to consolidate the positions won. The gains however, came at a heavy cost right from the outset and the Battalion War Diary records that over 240 men were killed, wounded or missing. Herbert was one of the unfortunate soldiers posted missing and presumed killed.

He died on Friday, 12th October 1917 fighting in his first serious action of the War.

Passchendaele is estimated to have cost the lives of 275,000 British soldiers and photographs of the devastation, particularly the treacherous conditions of the battlefield, have helped to shape public memory of the Western Front.

Herbert had a sweetheart in Hemel Hempstead, Louisa Isobel Monzani, and they had intended to marry. Indeed, on Sunday, 11th February 1917, the Banns were read at St Paul’s Church in the town whilst Herbert was overseas. However, the match did not take place as Herbert was killed without ever having returned home. Louisa never married and she died in Hemel Hempstead in 1944 aged fifty-seven.

Herbert was commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in St. Paul's Church on Queen Street. Sadly this plaque was lost when the church was demolished in 1984 and has been replaced by a Memorial Scroll in the new church in Highfield.

Herbert is Remembered with Honour on Tyne Cot Memorial, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 35 to 37 and 162 to 162A.

He was 36 years old when he died.

Herbert was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.