Name
Henry Ernest Pearce
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/04/1917
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
60187
Royal Fusiliers *1
32nd (County of London)(Service) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DICKEBUSCH NEW MILITARY CEMETERY
G.21
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Great Offley Village Memorial
Pre War
Henry was the second son of Charles and Mary Ann Pearce, of Angel Cottages, Offley, Hitchin. It is probable that his family kept the "Red Lion" Public House.
Henry enlisted in the Bedfords on the 20th of March 1916 and was transferred to the Royal Fusiliers. He went to France in November 1916.
Wartime Service
Formerly 6453 in the Bedfords according to "Soldiers Died" and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and according to the "National Register - Luton" he volunteered in April 1915 and was sent to the Western Front 1915.
He served at Ypres (Belgium) and killed on the Somme on the 14.4.1916. At the time of his death the 32nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers was part of 124th Brigade of the 41st Division of X Corps in the 2nd Army. The Division was in the vicinity of St Eloi approximately 3 miles east of where he is buried. No major engagements were in progress in this sector at the time. His death on the Somme is therefore unlikely though he may well have been involved in this Sector in 1916
According to an article in the Hertfordshire Express ("Offley man shot dead by sniper"), dated the 5th of May 1917, Henry "was killed instantly in action on April 14, being shot through the heart while passing a gap in front of our front line trench. Captain H. L. Kinley, in expressing his deep sympathy, said they all felt his death as a great loss as he was a most useful man in the Company and a great favourite with everybody. He died fearlessly, doing his duty which he always did well."
The article goes on to say that Henry was buried in a military cemetery in France, and that he had been in hospital with blood poisoning while at the Front after cutting himself with corrugated iron.
Additional Information
When Henry died his mother had been widowed for some years and was living at the Red Lion, Offley.
His father had been in the Army for 28 years and his oldest brother [DW: name unknown] had 24 years of service at the time of Henry's death was Sergeant-Major in the 7th Welsh at Durham, having served through the South African war and also in India.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)(Service) Bn London Regiment (East Ham).
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners
Adrian Dunne
