Joseph Ambrose, known as Joe, was born in Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead on Tuesday, 1st July 1890 and baptised on Friday, 8th August in the same year. He was the third son and child born to John Ambrose and Eliza Odell who had ten children together. Joe’s siblings were: Horace, Arthur, Frederick, Reginald Walter, Daisy, Rose, John, Ethel and the youngest Frank. His younger brother Walter also died in the Great War, only three months before Joe and his biography appears on this site. His youngest brother Frank was killed in World War II when he was one of 1418 crewmen, only three of which survived, lost when the battlecruiser HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck in the north Atlantic on the 24th May 1941. Another close family member, his cousin William ‘Weary’ Ambrose, was killed in France just four months before Joe. William’s biography appears earlier on this site. His older brothers, Horace and Arthur both served in the Great War and survived the conflict.

When he was old enough to leave school and start work, Joe followed his older brothers into John Dickinson & Co. Limited at Apsley Mills. He worked as a ‘Die Stamper’ and like his brothers, Joe laboured in the Printing department. All ten of the Ambrose children would work for Dickinsons at one time or another. Joe married Katie Spurr on 12th August 1911 at Christ Church Reformed Episcopal church in Hemel Hempstead. Joe and Katie had grown up together in Piccott’s End and lived only a few doors apart. Indeed, Katie lived next door to Joe’s Aunt and Uncle and in this close knit community, they shared many relatives for the Ambrose, Odell, Spurr, Ginger, Slough and Allum families.

Following their marriage, the young couple set up home at 50 Queen Street in Hemel Hempstead and soon had the first of their three children, Ivy Winifred born in January 1912. Doris May followed in May 1914 and finally, Kitty Lilian in September 1916. Tragically, his wife Katie died two months after the birth of their third child in November 1916, when Joe was at the Front. The cause of Katie’s death was certified as ‘Acute Bronchitis’ which, even in 1917, would rarely have been fatal. It may in fact have been chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) the chronic and often fatal strain of bronchitis. The symptoms of both are broadly similar. After their mother’s death, the three girls moved to live with their paternal grandparents who also raised them to adulthood after Joe was killed. Joe left Dickinsons and went to enlist on the 16th June 1915, when he attested at Hemel Hempstead and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment. He went to Hertford to undergo basic training and in early 1916 left to go overseas.

He disembarked at Le Havre on the 14th March and joined the 1/1st Hertfordshire Battalion in the field on the 22nd April 1916 near Festubert with 12 other drafts. For the next few months Joe saw action in the trenches until he fought in the Battle of Ancre Heights in October, as the Somme Offensive was coming to an end. The following month he was in action at the Battle of Ancre, the last major British offensive of the year and the culmination of the Battle of the Somme. Shortly after this engagement, Joe received the sad news that his young wife had died and he was immediately granted ten days home leave. He left for England on the 28th November and returned to Hemel Hempstead. His leave extended until the 18th December so that he could deal with family matters. He was then ‘retained on home service’ for a further three months and in the end, did not return to France until the 14th June 1917 when he disembarked at Boulogne.

He joined his Battalion again near Ypres, on the 11th August, the day before what would have been his sixth wedding anniversary. Just a week later he fought in the Battle of Langemarck, part of the Third Battle of Ypres. This was followed in September by the Battles of the Menin Road and Polygon Wood and finally in October, he fought through the horror of the Second Battle of Passchendaele. He came through all of the battles unscathed, but at the start of November the Battalion was subject to “A certain amount of gas shelling”. The Battalion War Diary recorded the following: “Casualties from 1st to 3rd; Killed - 2 OR's, died of wounds - 2 OR's, gassed - 5 OR's, wounded - 8 OR's.”

Sadly, Joe was a casualty and died on Thursday, 1st November 1917 as a result of gas poisoning.

He was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley along with his brother Walter.

Joe is Remembered with Honour on the Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 153.

He was 27 years old when he died.

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