2469 Private Henry Exley of the 1/8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) died on the 4th November 1915. He was just 18 years old.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was the son of A. J. Harvey Exley and Ada Exley of 69 Hyde Park Road Leeds and that he "enlisted soon after war was declared." My database of army service number suggests that he joined the West Yorks around the 20th September 1914 and that therefore he would have been no older than 17 at the time of joining. On the 1901 census he is recorded as a four year old boy living with his family at 3 Ashfield Grove, Hunslet in Leeds. The household in 1901 comprised Alex J H Exley (head, aged 30, a glass warehouseman by trade), his wife Ada (aged 27), their children: Henry (aged four), Hubert (aged two) and Alice (aged under one month) and Alex Exley's 65 year old father (a widower), George. A 55 year old visitor - Elizabeth Broydon - is also recorded.
Henry's medal index card records that he arrived in France on 26th April 1915. The stark word "Dead" is the only comment in the Remarks' section.
Henry was serving with A Company at the time of his death and he is buried in Poperinghe New Military Cemetery; one of 947 men buried there.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry.co.uk (1901 Census, MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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