Robert William Gash was born in Piccott’s End, Hemel Hempstead on Monday, 13th February 1893 and baptised at St Mary’s Church a month later on Sunday, 12th March. He was the only child of Robert George Gash and Alice Kempster. His mother Alice died aged twenty-eight, when Robert was just a year old in 1894. His father then remarried in 1896 to Lizzie Wise and Robert soon had a family of half siblings. These were: Alfred Cuthbert, Clara Katherine, Leonard Cecil, Mary Elizabeth and Dorothy Beatrice. His parents had two other children both of whom died in infancy. Alfred served as a ‘signaller’ with the Berkshire Regiment and he too died in the Great War in 1918. His biography also appears on this site.

Robert started his education at Bury Mill End school in 1898 and at the end of the following year he was the subject of a little local controversy, when he transferred to Boxmoor JMI school. The Bury Mill End school log recorded the fact that Robert had transferred to Boxmoor when still only six-years-old in December 1899, much to the annoyance of his teacher: “Dec 1st: Robert Gash who will not be 7 years of age until February, has left this school and been admitted to Boxmoor Boys school. Mistress wrote to the Master pointing out that the child is ‘underage for admission to this school and that it is unfair that he should be removed just at the end of the school year when, as a matter of course, he would be transferred in February”. The protest, however, was to no avail and young Robert had already started at Boxmoor by the time the Head Mistress wrote to her counterpart. Robert completed four of the seven ‘Standards’ and left in April 1906 to start his first job in ‘Domestic Service’ when he was thirteen-years-old.

By the time of the 1911 Census he had found employment as a ‘Fireman’ working for the 'Dairy Outfit Company', which was an engineering and manufacturing concern, making equipment for the dairy industry. This included wooden egg boxes, non-spill milking buckets, milk churns and pasteurisers. When he married in 1917, he was employed as a ‘Sheet Metal Maker’ at Boxmoor Iron Works on Marlowes. 

Robert enlisted with the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment (TF) as a territorial soldier in January 1912 as a way to supplement his wages , but on the outbreak of war, it meant he was immediately mobilised for active service. Three months later on the 5th November he was sent to France where he disembarked at Le Havre on the following day.

Two weeks after arriving, he was in the trenches as the First Battle of Ypres neared its end. Following this the Battalion moved to France and took part in the actions around Cuinchy during the winter of 1915. Robert fought at the Battle of Festubert in May and then in the Battle of Loos in September. On the 28th January 1916, Robert’s four year period of engagement with the 1st Herts terminated and he was discharged from the Army. However, he immediately re-enlisted and transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) and returned to England to train. He went back to France to fight at the Battle of the Somme in July with the 198th Company MGC and saw action throughout the Somme Offensive.

In January 1917 Robert was granted home leave and came back to Hemel Hempstead with one purpose in mind, to marry his sweetheart Alice Greenhill. Alice was a native of St Albans and when she and Robert met, she was working as an ‘Envelope Maker’ with John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley Mills. They married in Hemel Hempstead on 13th March 1917 at St John the Evangelist Church in Boxmoor. Soon afterwards Robert returned to his unit in France never to see his wife again. Alice did not remarry after Robert’s death and lived in Hemel Hempstead for many years before moving to Leighton Buzzard where she died in December 1979 aged eighty-five.

On his return to the Front, the 198th Company had moved to the 58th Division and Robert was soon back in action when he fought in the Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917. This was followed by two major engagements in September when he fought at the Battle of Menin Road Bridge and almost immediately afterwards at the Battle of Polygon Wood. It was during this second engagement that Robert died when he was reported one of five men killed on Wednesday 26th September 1917.

He is commemorated on the War Memorial plaque in St. John the Evangelist Church in Boxmoor where he had worshipped and married.

Robert is Remembered with Honour on Tyne Cot Memorial, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 154 to 159 and 163.

He was 24 years old when he died.

Robert was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.