Name
Harry Evans
1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266696
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY
XII. F. 6.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Harry Evans was born in 1892 in Hemel Hempstead, the son of Walter and Harriet Evans and one of seven children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 47 Chapel Street, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as an Iron moulder. There were two foundries in the town, Cranstone Engineering and Boxmoor Ironworks.
He left school in 1904 and joined John Dickinson & Co Ltd as a Clerk in their Apsley Mills paper factory in 1905. He also joined the Hertfordshire Territorials a few years later for a four year engagement, leaving in 1913 and at the outbreak of war he joined the local Volunteer Force. He remained working at Dickinsons until enlistment.
Wartime Service
Harry re-enlisted in Hertford and joined the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment, having served for four years with the Hertfordshire Territorials under reg. no. 5132. He went to Bury St Edmunds for basic training before being sent to France and joining his Battalion at the beginning of January 1916.
He was in trenches near Festubert in mid-April but experienced his first major action in the Battle of Ancre Heights in October, followed by the Battle of Ancre in November.
The Battalion moved to Belgium in 1917 and on 31 July Harry fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele, where the Battalion's losses were heavy.
August brought the Battle of Langemarck, where the Battalion were in a supporting role, but on 20 September the Battle of the Menin Road began. Harry died when a shell hit the trenches at Hooge on 21 September 1917 and killed him instantly. Harry is buried at the Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium.
Another Hemel Hempstead soldier, Arthur Cross was also killed in this incident. Arthur Cross has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £10 and pay owing of £6 1s 4d. She also received a pension of 6s 6d a week. Brother of Leonard Thomas Evans who served with the Royal Fusiliers and died in 1918.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
