Lives of the First World War

Henry Halton, known as Harry, was a Sapper with the Royal Engineers, 178th Tunnelling Company (service number 137670). He died on 21 December 1915, aged 23 at which time his company was stationed at the Fricourt section of the Somme. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. According to his army records, his address on enlistment into the Royal Engineers on 14 October 1915 was Blackhouse Lane, Suckley. Henry, who was born at Winslow in Herefordshire in about 1892, had been employed as a miner before the war, had already been serving with the 1/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment since 29 September 1914 , and had first been disembarked for service in France on 1 April 1915. His next of kin was named as his mother, Mrs Annie Mountford, with whom he lived. By the time Harry died, Annie Mountford was living at Lower Lakes, Whitmore. He also had a younger sister, Annie Doris May, aged 17. The 1901 census shows Harry, his stepfather Samuel Mountford – who was a farmer’s son born about 1872 at Edvin Ralph, Herefordshire – his mother Annie, born at Winslow in about 1865, and sister Florence Halton, living at Court Farm Buildings, Whitbourne, near Bromyard in Herefordshire. But I have been unable to trace the family in the 1911 census.

Created by: , Margaret31045