Harold Owen Bagust was born in 1896, the sixth of the seven children of Alfred John Cooper Bagust (1848-1918) and Mary Ann Bagust née Baugh (1859-1922). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1896 in the Wandsworth registration district and his father was a horse-keeper.
The 1901 census shows him living at 11 Calder's Row, Streatham, with his parents and four siblings: Frederick John Bagust (1888-1947); Edith Ellen Bagust (1891-1925); William George Bagust (1894-1918) who as a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps was to die from influenza and pneumonia on 28 November 1918 in the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich and Alice Louisa Bagust (1898-1976), together with a cousin William Bagust. In the 1911 census he is recorded as a telegraph boy employed by the Post Office and still residing at 11 Calder's Row, Brixton Hill, with his parents and two siblings: William & Alice.
In May 1913 he was appointed as an Assistant Postman in the London Postal Service. He joined the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles). His service number was 1666, which would indicate a joining date of the first half of 1913. When this Territorial Force was renumbered in 1917 his service number became 370251. He entered France on 27 January 1917 and was attached to their 2nd/8th Battalion when he was killed in action, aged 21 years, on 6th September 1917 and is buried in Row B, Grave 15, in the Track X Cemetery, Moortelweg, Ieper, Belgium.
On 25 February 1918 his army effects totalling £9-18s-2d were sent to his recently widowed mother and she was sent his £14-0s-0d war gratuity on 10 November 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as Bagust. H. O. on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on Page 18 in the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1914-1920. He was commemorated on a memorial at Streatham Hill Congregational Church, 235 Brixton Hill, but the church had to be demolished in 1982/1983. An attempt was made to remove the tablets but they crumbled. Photographs have been kept in album in the new church building. His name is also shown on the King Edward Street Post Office and E.C. District Staff war memorial that used to be on display in King Edward Building, King Edward Street, London, EC1, but was transferred to the National Army Museum when the Post Office sold the building. It is currently located in the Museum's store in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Grave's Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Live of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
