Name
Horace Allan Furlong
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/06/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
T4/090593
Army Service Corps
Base Horse Transport Depot (Salonika)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATBY MEMORIAL
Egypt
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Sawbridgeworth memorials
Pre War
Horace was born in Sawbridgeworth in July 1882, and at sometime lived at 11 Barkers Lane (Station Road) Sawbridgeworth.
In the 1901 census he was described as a ‘Journeyman Baker’.
Later in life, Horace left the town, and in 1910 he married his Dutch wife Aaltye in Islington and lived with her in Clerkenwell. They had one daughter named Antonia. In 1911 he was a ‘Bakers Van Man’.
He was resident in Putney when he enlisted in Wandsworth.
Wartime Service
He was assigned to the Royal Army Service Corps operating in the rear of the lines probably because he could already drive.
In 1917, Horace was stationed at Army Service Corps HT Depot Salonika, on the Salonika Front in Greece fighting the Bulgarians. This was often called a ‘sideshow’ and was an attempt to aid Britain’s ally Serbia, with tens times more casualties being taken from Dysentery and Malaria than actual fighting.
The letters HT in the depot designation indicate it was a
Horse Transport depot. This actually meant due to the terrain, that they were
operating mules.
On 2 June 1917 the SS Cameronian, whilst sailing between Alexandria and Salonika and carrying amongst other things, a cargo of mules, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC 34. Also on board was Horace Furlong. He died at sea and was one of 63 lives lost, his body not being recovered.
Horace Furlong is named on the Chatby Memorial, Alexandria, Egypt. He was aged 34.
Additional Information
His elder brother of Roland Furlong also died.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Dauglas Coe
