Lives of the First World War

Horace was a butcher living in Windsor with his wife and four children. He delivered meat to some of the larger houses in the town. When delivering he was sometimes asked by the ladies of theses houses why he had not joined up. He joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1915, his service number being 18578. He was likely to have joined the 8th (Service) Battalion went to France via Le Havre on 8th September 1915. It is also likely that he was part of the battalion machine gun section which was transferred to The Machine Gun Corps following its formation on or after 14th October 1915. His regimental number with the MGC was 20467 and was posted to 1st Company which was formed as part of 1st Division on 26th January 1916. On 3rd September 1916 his company took part in the fighting for High Wood. The regimental war diary indicated at the Right Section (3 guns) were to work with The Cameron Highlanders, the Left Section (3 guns) to work with The Black Watch, the Special Section (6 guns) to bring flanking fire onto High Wood and the Reserve Section ( 4guns) to carry out overhead fire. It is not known which section Horace was in but on that day Right Section lost two killed and two wounded as they went forward to support C Company of The Camerons. Left section lost one man killed as they supported The Black Watch. A total of three men killed, one of whom was Horace. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial

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