Soldier in the Queen Victoria Rifles killed in the Battle of Piave River.
Andrew Behan has researched Helliwell: Private Norman John Webster Helliwell was born in 1893, in Bayswater, the only child of John Webster Helliwell and Janetta Louisa Helliwell, née Keene. The 1911 census shows that his father had died and he was living with his widowed mother at 29 Kenwyn Road, Raynes Park and his occupation was a Railway Clerk.
He gave his address as 228 Coombe Lane, Cottenham Park, Wimbledon, and occupation as a Railway Clerk when on 2 September 1914 he enlisted in the 21st (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), in Camberwell and was allocated the service number 2719. On 11 March 1916 he transferred to the Honourable Artillery Company and his service number became 7215. He embarked from Southampton on 1 October 1916 and arrived in Le Harve, France on 3 October 1916. He was granted 10 days leave on on 4 November 1917 and following this his regiment was posted to Italy.
On 28 October 1918 he suffered a bullet wound to his buttock and groin during The Passage of the River Piave in the final battle of Vittorio Veneto and died, aged 25 years, on 31 October 1918 in the British No.9 Casualty Clearing Station and was buried in Plot 5, Row A, Grave 3, in the Giavera British Cemetery, Giavera del Montello, Veneto, Italy. His mother, who had remarried and was now Mrs Janetta L. Fennings, was sent his army effects, totalling £3-7s-9d, on 6 September 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal. He is also commemorated on a brass plaque along with another 171 men who died in the Great War in The Warrior Chapel, St Mary's Church, St Mary's Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 7BP.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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