Name
Henry Godfrey Walter Anthony
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/02/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
23210
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY, BEAUMONT-HAMEL
VII. F. 26.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath
Pre War
Henry Godfrey Walter Anthony was born (with the surname Hodkinson) to Mary Ann Elizabeth Hodkinson in 1896 in Harrow Weald, Middlesex 1896. She subsequently married Albert Anthony on 21 August 1898 at All Saints Parish Church in Harrow Weald. The census return for 1901 shows Albert and Elizabeth, as she was then known, living at 108 School Lane, Bushey, with her son, Henry, aged four, and a daughter aged two.
Albert was a bricklayer’s labourer and, over the next few years, he and Elizabeth had four more children and moved to 129 School Lane. Henry took on the family name and became known as Harry Anthony. In 1911, when he was fourteen, he worked for a green grocer and was later employed by Dumbelton, a butcher in Watford.
Wartime Service
Soon after war was declared Harry enlisted at Ampthill and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, 4th Battalion. He served as Lance Corporal 23210 on the Western Front. He was close to his sister, Grace, and regularly wrote letters to her. Transcripts of these can be viewed on the Bushey First World War Commemoration Project web site.
His pension record shows an award of 4/- per week from 21/08/1917 (rising to 5/- from 06/11/1918) being paid to Mary A E Anthony of 129, School Lane, Bushey.
Additional Information
Information provided with the kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
