7535 Pte Horace Alexander Mansell, 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers

7535 Private Horace Alexander Mansell of A Squadron, the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, died of wounds on the 29th November 1917. He was a Londoner, born in Islington, and was 25 years old when he died. Horace had been in France since the 17th May 1915 and his number indicates that he had probably been in khaki with the 5th Lancers since September 1914.

Horace was the son of Mrs Rose M Mansell of 18, Yonge Park, Finsbury Park in London. His birth was registered in the December quarter of 1892 and he appears on the 1901 census as an eight year old boy living at 15 Clayton Street, Islington with his parents, six sisters and two brothers. The family appears to have originally settled in Walworth and then moved further north to Islington, probably in the mid 1880s. Horace's father was a carpenter by trade and appears on the 1901 census as an engineer joiner fitter.

Horace's medal index card omits his middle name but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records him as H A Mansell. He was one of 514 British servicemen to die on this date and he is buried in Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery in Manancourt, France.

CWGC states that, "The cemetery was begun in 1917 and used until March 1918, mainly by the 21st and 48th Casualty Clearing Stations posted at Ytres."

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, 1901 census, Free BMD)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War