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Drvr. Harry Joseph Underhill
Royal Field Artillery 518th Coy. 60th Divisional Ammunition Column
from:Birmingham, Warwickshire
Joe Underhill married Edith Rose Hill on 18th of December 1915 and was conscripted under the 1916 Military Services Act. He was called into the colours to join the 7th Artillery Training School at Winchester on either 27th or 28th April 1916 and posted to Divisional Ammunition Column as a Driver. This was part of the 60th Divisional Ammunition Column in which 518th Company Army Service Corps, RFA and RASC Drivers would have been employed. As most small-arms ammunition was .303 calibre, it seems that Harry was involved in the passage of these stores from rear echelon ammunition dumps to the front areas for use by the infantry. According to the Long Trail website, orders were received on 14th June 1916 to send advance parties to Le Havre (15th June) and Boulogne (18th) to prepare for the Division to cross to France. The crossing was completed by 29th June and the Division concentrated in XVII Corps area.
On 1st November, the Division received orders to reorganise in preparation for a move to Salonika, Macedonia and it was about this time that Harry received news of the birth of his daughter Eileen, (16th October 1916). Units entrained at Longpre, France between 14th and 25th November and, going via Marseilles and Malta, they assembled at Salonika, Macedonia, on 25th December 1916.
Harry was hospitalized in the early part of 1917 and as family tradition has it that he was thrown from a horse, this could well have been the reason. We know he also contracted Paratyphoid A and possibly Malaria, while serving in Salonika, and was transferred to No. 3 Convalescent Depot on 9th April 1917. He returned to service on 29th June 1917.
The Division then remained in Salonika and took part in many engagements. After the Battle of Sharon in September 1918, the Divisional mounted units were engaged in pursuit of the broken enemy, while the rest of the Division remained on salvage and similar work. Divisional HQ moved to Mulebbis on 24th September and thence to Auja in early October. It moved (after the Armistice) on 3rd November to Lydda, then five days later a longer move via Qantara to Alexandria commenced. By 26th November the whole Division was at Alexandria. Demobilisation commenced. By 31st May 1919 the Division ceased to exist.
Sadly, shortly after returning home from the war, Eileen contracted whooping cough and broncho pneumonia and passed away on Sunday 16th November 1919. Harry suffered greatly during WWI and lost his elder sister Nellie, to dinitrophenol poisoning due to exposure to chemicals used in the munitions factory where she worked. He also lost his older brother Jack, (John George Underhill) on 15th October 1918 to disease contracted while still serving in France, but his greatest loss was undoubtedly Eileen, his first child who he hardly got to know.
