Herbert Cary

Born: 1882

Died: 3 January 1917

Rank and Regiment: Private 41030 2nd Battalion the Essex Regiment

Resting Place: St Mary’s Worstead, North Walsham

Memorial: St. Peter’s, Reymerston, United Kingdom

Herbert Cary was baptised in Reymerston Church on 7 May 1882, the son of Louis and Rebecca Cary (nee Fuller), who were local farmers. His siblings were Florence, John, Arthur, Louis, Charlie, Percy, Dorothy and Bernard. Rebecca died aged 63 on 1 February 1916, Dorothy aged 28 on 1 June 1923 and Louis on 5 October 1929 aged 79.

In 1909 Herbert married Florence Websdell and went to work and live as a gardener in Lyngate, Worstead. Their daughter Alice was born in 1911.

Herbert enlisted and became a Private in first the Norfolk regiment, with service number 20908, then the Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion (41030).

He died in St Andrew’s Hospital, Dollis Hill, London, on 3rd January 1917, of infective enteritis and suspected dysentery. Unusually for the men listed in this melancholy volume, his wife was able to be with him as he died. 

He is buried in the churchyard of St Mary, Worstead, near North Walsham, where the inscription on his gravestone reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

HERBERT CARY

2ND ESSEX REGT,

Dearly beloved husband of

FLORENCE CARY

Who died of fever contracted on active service in FRANCE

3rd January 1917 age 34

Thy will be done.

He is also commemorated on the War Memorial at Worstead.

Florence never remarried. She died in 1971, aged 88, having been a widow for 54 years, and is buried with Herbert.

St. Mary’s Worstead, North Walsham