9923 Pte Henry Crouch, 2nd East Lancashire Regiment

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 122 UK servicemen died one hundred years ago today on the 23rd November 1914. Henry Crouch was one such casualty, dying of wounds on this day.

Henry was born in Peesmarsh, Rye, East Sussex and enlisted with the East Lancashire Regiment at Canterbury in December 1908. Oddly, I can find no reference to his 1914 Star. His medal index card shows entitlement to the British War and Victory Medal but of course, he would have been entitled to the 1914 Star (and clasp) and probably arrived overseas with the battalion on the 7th November 1914.

The battalion had been in South Africa when war was declared and had only arrived back in England at the end of October. The war diary makes no mention of significant action in November and so Henry was possibly fatally wounded either during a relief, during one of those sporadic and desultory bombardments of British lines, or as a result of sniping; it's impossible to say.

Henry is buried in Estaires Communal Cemetery and Extension along with a number of other regular soldiers who were killed in action or died of wounds in November and December 1914.

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

Capt Thomas Joseph Fitzherbert-Brockholes, 2nd Bn, Rifle Brigade

On what is, today, Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom, 724 mothers' sons died on this single day in 1915. Ninety three of these men died of wounds and Captain Thomas Joseph Fitzherbert-Brockholes of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade was one of these casualties.

Thomas was 27 years old, the son of William Fitzherbert-Brockholes CBE, and Blanche Fitzherbert-Brockholes, of Claughton Hall, Garstang, Lancashire. He would be mentioned in dispatches, this appearing in the London Gazette of 22nd June 1915.

According to his medal index card, Thomas arrived overseas as a second lieutenant and adjutant with the 2nd Rifle Brigade, disembarking on the 7th November 1914. He was subsequently appointed Captain and held this rank at the time of his death.

Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes is buried in Estaires Communal Cemetery and Extension. In December 1921 his father applied for his dead son's medals. Thomas's younger brother Roger, a lieutenant aboard HMS Glory, was lost at sea on the 2nd July 1919.

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

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission