32825 Pte Owen Needham of the 6th Leicestershire Regiment died of wounds on the 28th or 29th April 1917. He was 19 years old.
The 1911 census shows Owen as a 13-year-old living at Charnwood Road, Shepshed with his parents and seven siblings. No service record survives for him but his regimental number dates to late October 1916. He was probably conscripted as an eighteen-year-old, arriving in France in 1917.
Soldiers Died in the Great War notes that he enlisted at Leicester and died of wounds on the 29th April, whilst the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives his date of death as the 28th April. After the war, his parents paid for an inscription to be added to his headstone in Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux: ETERNAL REST / GIVE UNTO HIM O LORD. They also paid for the same inscription to be added to his brother Frank's headstone. Frank Needham was killed in action serving with the Machine Gun Corps on the 5th October 1918.
I met Owen and Frank's brother Ernest Needham whilst I was a student at Loughborough University in the 1980s and have published a brief profile of him on my World War 1 Veterans' blog.
Owen and Frank Needham are both remembered on the at memorial at Shepshed.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Shepshed war memorial image courtesy Leicestershire County Council.
3 comments:
Thank you for your tribute to private Owen Needham; he was my Great Uncle. Thank you also for your profile of my Grandfather Ernest Needham, he was the kindest and gentlest of men. Ernest often spoke of his brothers, Owen, Francis, John and George and also their sister Mary. They will remain in our hearts forever. We are planning next year to visit the war graves of Owen and Francis. With heartfelt thanks, Anthony, Sarah, Emma and Owen.
Thank you for commenting, Anthony. I only met your grandfather the once. I was 21 and he would have been 83 or 84. Now, thirty years later, 84 doesn't seem that old anymore. But he was a wonderful man, very courteous and with a lovely Leicestershire brogue. Coincidentally I was in Leicester today, and hearing those accents again, took me back to Loughborough. I wish you a rewarding trip to pay your respects to your great uncles, I'm sure it will be emotional.
Paul
PS - Anthony. I may have a tape recording of your grandfather. Please drop me a line. My email address is on the RESEARCH tab on this blog.
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