Name
Henry James Lewis
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/05/1918
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
43328
Durham Light Infantry
1/7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SOISSONS MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
He was born in Whitechapel in London and resided in Peckham. His parents lived at 2, Leicester Cottages, Nightingale Rd, Hitchin. He was the husband of Ruth Evangelina Jessie Lewis of 3, West Alley, Hitchin.
Wartime Service
He joined up in June 1916 in Camberwell and was given the Regimental Number 27087 in the King's Royal Rifles. Later he was posted as Number 43328 in the 1/7th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. In October 1916 he was sent to France and fought at Ypres, Loos, Albert and on the Somme, was wounded and invalided home in December 1917. In April 1918 he returned to the Western Front and was reported missing at Cambrai. Later he was presumed killed in action.
At the time of his death his unit was the Pioneer Battalion as part of the 151st Brigade in the 50th Division of IX Corps operating under the 6th (French) Army on the final day of the Battle of the Aisne. At 1.00am on the 27th May 1918 the Germans launched a fearful bombardment of gas and high explosives followed by assault divisions of infantry from Rheims to Soissons. The 50 (Northumberland) Division were near the Chemin des Dames in the vicinity of Cerny about three miles north of the River Aisne. The Divisional artillery was destroyed, communication lines broken, forward trenches eliminated as the barrage ranged backwards and forwards in one of the most concentrated and effective bombardments of the war.
He has no known grave and is remembered on the Soissons Memorial to the Missing in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
