Name
Horace Edwin Bryant
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/09/1914
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
67928
Royal Horse Artillery
'L' Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NERY COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Special Memorial at Verberie French National Cemetery
France
Headstone Inscription
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Ashwell memorials Biggleswade Town Memorial, Beds, Wesleyan (Now Trinity Methodist) Church, Biggleswade.
Pre War
Horace Edwin Bryant was born in Ashwell in 1893, the son of Joseph and Shirley Bryant and was one of three children, with younger sisters Evelyn and Gertrude. He was baptised on 3 March 1893 at Ashwell, Herts.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Station Road, Ashwell, and his father was working as a stockman on a farm. By 1911 they had moved to Stratton Cottages, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire and his father was working as a Cowman and 18 year old Horace was working as a bricklayer's labourer.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Peterborough and joined the Royal Field Artillery. Horace was already a serving soldier when war began and served in France from 15 August 1914.
He was killed on 1 September 1914, aged 21, by a German shell during the Affair of Nery (part of the retreat from Mons), when the cavalry brigade were attacked by a German cavalry division of about twice their strength shortly after dawn. He is believed to be buried in the Nery Communal Cemetery in France and is commemorated on a special memorial at the Verberie French National Cemetery. (see Note in Additional Information below)
It was reported that he had many relatives living in Ashwell and when his sister wrote to friends there she said that she felt the loss of her only brother deeply but she was proud to think that he died for his country and in defence of their brave allies.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £2 10s 4d. He also received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
N.B. Horace Bryant is listed on the CWGC website as buried in Verberie French National Cemetery and Nery Communal Cemetery, France. Information from CWGC states that in the Verberie Cemetery there are now over 70, 1914-18 casualties commemorated on that site. Of these, over a quarter are unidentified and a special memorial records the names of twelve men of 'L' Battery, R.H.A., who fell in the Affair of Nery: five are buried in Verberie and seven at Nery, none of whom could be individually identified, hence they are all commemorated at both sites.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk, www.biggleswadehistory.org.uk
