Name
Henry Griffith Boone (DSO)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/09/1917
36
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Major
Royal Field Artillery
94th Bty.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Distinguished Service Order, Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY
III. D. 19.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
BELOVED HUSBAND OF MARGARET BOONE GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS. ST. JOHN XV.13
UK & Other Memorials
High Wych Village Memorial
Pre War
Son of Mrs. E. K. Boone and the late Col. F. B. Boone, M.S.C.; husband of Margaret G. J. Boone, of Hawkwood, Chislehurst, Kent.
A professional soldier, the son of a Lieutenant Colonel, Henry Boone was born in Madras, India on 16 November 1880. He was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, before being commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a 2nd Lieutenant. His commission being Gazetted on 6 January 1900.
Henry Boone served in India between 1900-6 with a mountain battery and was a part of the Tibet expeditionary force of 1903-4.
In 1907, Henry served for a time in China and could speak excellent Mandarin.
On 7 June 1911, Henry married Margaret Edlmann at Chislehurst in Kent. They would have 2 sons.
Wartime Service
With the coming of war, Henry Boone transferred to the Royal Field Artillery and was in France in 1914, being wounded in September that year, and being invalided home. He returned to France in September 1915 but was again invalided home in October 1916.
On 5 September 1917, Henry Boone was struck by a shell splinter when serving with the 94th (Howitzer) Battery near Ypres. He died of his wounds the next day, 6 September 1917 at a field hospital at Proven.
Henry Boone is buried at Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Belgium. He is named on the High Wych Memorial Plaque, the Farnham Memorial Cross, the Hale Memorial Cross, the Chislehurst War Memorial and the Wellington College WW1 Roll of Honour. He was aged 36.
Henry Boone was awarded the DSO in June 1916 and was twice mentioned in dispatches.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs H(sic) Boone, Hawkwood, Chislehurst, Kent ordered his headstone inscription: "BELOVED HUSBAND OF MARGARET BOONE GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS. ST. JOHN XV.13". The only connection with High Wych (found so far) is that the vicar at that time, Rev. Horace Rackham was a friend of the family.
Acknowledgments
Douglas Coe
