BORN BEVERLEY 29/09/1883. SON OF ISSAC OXENDALE (1859-1941) AND EMMA GREGOR (1858- ), BEVERLEY. HE HAD ONE BROTHER, GEOREG AND FIVE SISTER. HIS FAMILY LIVED IN BEVERLEY AND HULL. LIKE HIS FATHER, HE WAS EMPLOYED AS A HAY CUTTER. HE WAS 5 FOOT, 6.5 INCHES TALL, 149 LBS WEIGHT, 37-39 INCH CHEST SIZE, GREY EYES, BROWN HAIR, CHURCH OF ENGLAND RELIGION.
HE MARRIED AT ST MARY’S, BEVERLEY, ON, 26/12/1910. HIS WIFE MAY FLORENCE (FISHWICK) & TWO CHILDREN RESIDED AT 46 NORWOOD, 3 SPENCER STREET, WALKER GATE, OF BEVERLEY AND 6 CRYSTAL AVENUE, SUBWAY STREET, HULL. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS ON 19/09/1916. TRAINED AT HOLME, RIPON AND SALSIBURY. SERVED IN EGYPT. ARRIVED FRANCE, ON 08/03/1916. KILLED IN ACTION 13/11/1916.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HERBERT OXENDALE 12/456. Born in 1883, Herbert was the second of six children to Isaac and Emma Oxendale. A Hay Cutter by trade he married May Fishwick at St. Mary’s Church in Beverley on Boxing Day 1910 and the couple lived at 6 Pasture Terrace in the town with their two children- Annie and Herbert Jnr. He enlisted at Hull City Hall on 19th September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals. Herbert was killed in action on 13th November 1916 during the last desperate action of the Somme campaign as a disastrous attempt was made to flatten a salient in the line at Serre and hundreds of men waded to their deaths through mud up to their chests in places. Many simply sank without a trace. Herbert Oxendale’s body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to those who lost their lives on that sector and who have no known grave- all 72, 194 of them. He was 33 years old.
