Herbert Charles Cutler was born in the summer of 1899 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire the oldest child of Walter Herbert Cutler and Maria Rickett. Herbert had a younger sister Beryl Maria Maude and one other sibling who died in infancy. Herbert’s father Walter was a “Compositor” who worked for John Dickinson & Co., Limited in Apsley Mills and when Herbert was born the family lived in Moor End, between Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead in a house known as “Gade Villa” not far from the Heath Park Hotel. By the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 112 Marlowes a short distance from their old home and had a “Boarder”, Julia Fisher an “Assistant Teacher” in one of the Hemel schools.

When Herbert left school in 1912, he followed his father into Dickinsons at Apsley Mills and although too young to enlist on the outbreak of war, he joined the Hemel Hempstead Volunteer Force as soon as it was formed in 1916. He served in the Volunteers and continued to work in Apsley Mills until he was old enough to enlist for service. He did so at the start of 1918 and following completion of his basic training he was sent overseas. He was posted to the 1/22nd London Regiment The Queen’s (Royal West Surreys) and although the exact date of his arrival is unknown it was probably around May of June of 1918 when the Battalion was at Laviéville to the west of Albert and in the frontline trenches.

In August, Herbert fought in the Battle of Albert which was significant in that it was the opening push in a series of actions which ultimately brought the war to a successful conclusion for the Allies. The fighting lasted for just two days but the Battalion suffering 199 casualties although thankfully, Herbert was not among them. Six days later, instructions were received commanding the 1/22nd Battalion to move forward and assemble ready for another major assault, which it did with great difficulty and hindered by “…intense darkness and enemy shelling.” At 5.30 am on the 30th August, the Battalion attacked in what was the last engagement of the Battle of Bapaume. The objective was achieved but again at the cost of many casualties and the Battalion War Diaries recorded the following: “…18th Division attacked on left at 5.30 but were compelled to withdraw from RANCOURT later with the result that a gap existed on the left flank and the Battn was held up by heavy machine gun fire from high ground…” It then records “Casualties approx. 3 off and 100 OR”

Herbert was one of the unfortunate men cut down by the enemy machine guns and he was Killed in Action on Friday, 30th August 1918, only ten short weeks before the Armistice.

A short announcement of his death was published in the Hemel Gazette just over a month after he was killed. Herbert was survived by his parents Walter and Maria and sister Beryl. Walter and Maria died just over a month apart in 1958 when they were both aged ninety-one, having been married for sixty-one years and known each other for over seventy.

Herbert was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley End and on the War Memorial Plaque in the Methodist Church on Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead where he had worshipped.

He is Remembered with Honour in Combles Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France, where he is interred in Grave II. D. 23. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his father Walter, reads: “REMEMBERED IN LOVE BY FATHER, MOTHER AND SISTER BERYL”

Herbert was only 19 years old when he died.

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