Name
Harry Holden
4 September 1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/05/1915
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
63890
Royal Field Artillery
123rd Bty.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY
XVII. A. 12.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Not on the Boxmoor memorials
Pre War
Henry Holden (known as Harry) was born on 4 September 1895 in Boxmoor, nr King's Langley & Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of Elizabeth (Eliza) Holden, and one of four children.
He started school at Whitehorse Road Infants School in Croydon on 24 April 1899, soon after they moved to the area. He left school on 14 March 1909 to start work as a Butcher's Errand Boy.
On the 1901 Census Harry was living with his mother Eliza and siblings Dora, Jennie and Charles at 61 Farnley Road, South Norwood, Croydon. His mother was listed as married but living on her own means working as a laundress.
His mother lived at 69 Farnley Road, South Norwood, Surrey on pension records.
Wartime Service
Harry enlisted as a regular soldier with the Royal Field Artillery sometime before the war, and joined the 123rd Battery, 28th Brigade, RFA. They were stationed in Dundalk, Ireland at the outbreak of war and embarked from Belfast on SS Mesaba on 17 August 1914, arriving at le Havre on 19 August 1914.
He saw action at many of the major engagements in 1914, including Le Cateau where the Brigade suffered its first casualties. He fought in the Battles of the Marne and Aisne, La Bassee and Messines and the First Battle of Ypres.
He was killed in action on 5 May 1915, age 21 at Hill 60 during the Second Battle of Ypres and is buried in Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £10 0s 10d. She also received a pension of 6 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org. www/hemelheroes.com.
