Name
Henry (Harry) James Marsom
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/08/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
720768
London Regiment *1
1/24th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIS-EN-ARTOIS MEMORIAL
Panel 10
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
His parents had lived in Tilehouse Street, Hitchin. He was employed as a shorthand typist at the Law Courts and was also a Sunday School teacher at St. Mary's School. His fiancée, Lizzie Cartwright, lived at 20, Trevor Rd, Hitchin.
He resided in Hitchin but enlisted at Kennington.
Wartime Service
Henry joined up in September 1914 and was posted to France in March 1915. into the l/24th Battalion of the London (The Queen's) (T.F.) Regiment and was given the Regimental Number 720768. He was killed in action. Photographs found on his body identified him and gave his address. This may suggest that he would originally been buried before his body ws later lost..
At the time of his death this Battalion was in the 142nd Brigade of the 47th London Division of the III Corps in the 4th Army and taking part in the Battle of Albert. The 47th Division was at the right of the Corps line that stretched from Albert to the vicinity of the River Somme. Zero hour was at 4.45am on the 22nd August 1918 and the Division advanced behind 250 guns providing an artillery barrage creeping forward at the rate of 100 yards every four minutes. In the afternoon the enemy counter-attacked and casualties among the London's was extremely heavy. By the end of the day the Division had been driven out of the Happy Valley which it had captured earlier in the day and was so exhausted that it could not continue the offensive on the following day.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Panel 10 of the Vis-en-Artois Memorial to the Missing in France.
Additional Information
His brother was in the R.A.F.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (The Queens's).
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
