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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Harry William Thurlow
British Army 1st/8th Btn. Middlesex Regiment
from:Elmfield, 73 Laleham Road, Staines, Middlesex
(d.25th Apr 1915)
I first made Harry Thurlow's acquaintance about twenty years ago when I bought a set of twelve Edwardian anthropomorphic (animals dressed as humans) cat postcards from an auction that was held in Nottingham. Included with them were six more postcards of monkeys by a different artist. The auction catalogue showed only the front of the cards but once I had received them it was then that I noticed the set of twelve cards had all been sent to Harry in Staines from Auntie Kate between 1906 and 1907. The fact that all of them had been sent to him made me want to find out more about him. The six postcards of monkeys had also been sent from his aunt, three of them to him whilst the other three appeared to have been sent to his sister. The Internet was still in its infancy and although I found Harry's General Register Office birth registration I could not find a marriage or a death for him. The address on the cards only had the house name, there was no house number and an Internet search wasn't enlightening. Letters I sent to the appropriate Record Offices did not enlighten me other than the fact that as not much development had taken place in Staines, his home was likely to still be standing. I had come to a dead end rather quickly.
As time went by I was able to look at the 1901 census which showed Harry at the familiar address; again, there was no house number. When more information had been made available on the Internet I suddenly found out why he didn't marry or die, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website showed that he had been killed abroad in the First World War. By a stroke of luck the details gave his parents' address and included the house number where he lived, so at last, I had found out what I wanted to know! Via Google Earth I was able to see the house in which Harry and his family lived. Still more time went by and I accumulated more information about Harry and his family, including the 1911 census when it became available. Most of the First World War Service Records were destroyed by fire in the Second World War when a German bomb hit the building in which they were housed. Amazingly, Harry's survived and provided quite a lot of new information.
In the last few years I have added greatly to what I had already found and have built up a complete picture of Harry's tragically short life. He was born on 6th of Nov 1896 and was baptised Harry William Robert just after Christmas on 27th December in St. Peter's church, only yards away from his home on the other side of the road. Harry's two other names were clearly chosen to include both of his grandfathers' and father's names. On Valentine's Day 1899, Harry's mum and dad gave him a sister, Valerie Lucy Alice and she was baptised at the same church as Harry just over two months later on St. George's Day, 23rd April. Again, Valerie's other two names were undoubtedly chosen because they were also her grandmothers' names. Harry started his schooling at the infants school in Wyatt Road which had opened the year he was born and he later transferred to the school in Kingston Road, another new school that opened in 1903. Whilst there, Harry learned to swim and also joined the scout movement. He probably left the school around the end of 1909 and then entered the world of work. What other jobs he may have had I don't know, but at one time Harry worked as a van boy for a draper's business of which there were a few in Staines. By April 1913 he was a gas fitter's mate, working for the Staines and Egham Gas Company. During that same year, Harry joined a large voluntary organisation, one to which his dad also belonged.
In August 1914 when war was declared, Harry was a Territorial soldier, a private in the 8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. The Territorial Army was not obliged to serve overseas but upon the outbreak of war, many battalions did offer to do exactly that and Harry's was the first in the country to do so.
The 8th Middlesex was embodied and effectively became part of the regular army. Men generally joined the company appropriate to where they were living. A Company consisted of men living in Twickenham and Southall, B Company men were from Brentford and Staines, C Company had men drawn from Hounslow and D Company had men who were based in Ealing. Harry was of course in B Company.
Proclamations were received at the post offices from senior officers late on 4th August for everyone to report to their district Drill Hall in order to await instructions. Harry, his dad and everyone else reported to the 8th Battalion's headquarters in Hanworth Road, Hounslow and preparations were made for an immediate move. They were then all allowed to return home for the night with orders to return early the following morning.
Between eight and nine o'clock the next morning, Harry, his dad and around one hundred and fifty others arrived at Hounslow from Staines, having travelled on the train and said their goodbyes. Throughout the day a large concentration of men descended on the 8th Battalion's Headquarters. Horses, carts and motor cars were commandeered; baggage was packed, arms and equipment overhauled, ball ammunition (for muskets) served out and men went to get their bayonets and swords sharpened. All was ready at around nine o'clock in the evening and the battalion formed up outside the Drill Hall.
Headed by the band and under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. Garner, the men all marched to Feltham railway station where they boarded the train at ten o'clock destined for Sheerness in Kent. A large crowd came to see them off, wishing them good luck and cheering them on their way. Upon arrival, almost the whole of the 8th Battalion, twenty officers and a thousand other ranks were now on the Isle of Sheppey. Two of the four companies of the battalion went to Sheerness Barracks guarding German prisoners. Perhaps Harry was one of the guards. He, his dad and their comrades were in Sittingbourne for a total of four and a half weeks and then news arrived that they were being posted to foreign lands.
On the 10th September the battalion left Sittingbourne to journey to Southampton. Arriving at the dockyard shortly before eight o'clock, the men all then boarded a ship. Also with them was the 5th Territorial Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, which was en route for Egypt. At 8 o'clock in the evening of 17th September, they arrived at Gibraltar where Harry and his dad spent the next five months of their lives. By all accounts they had a very enjoyable time there. It was warm, they saw lots of local people, visited the town and saw wildlife that they would never have seen in England, although they were away from home at Christmas and it must have been quite unpleasant for Harry's mum, sister and gran as well as for him and his dad.
The battalion came back to England on 14th of February, arriving at Avonmouth. From there the men went by train to Feltham and then marched to Hounslow Heath Hutments. Several days later the men were given a few days leave and of course Harry and his dad went home to see the family that they had left behind some five months ago. Besides engaging in the ordinary routine drills and field training on Hounslow Heath, the battalion went on several route marches through different parts of the district which, amongst other things, gave people an opportunity to see them. Before long Harry and his dad were on the move again, to more foreign lands.
On the 8th March, the 8th Battalion marched from the Hutments to Hounslow railway station, where the men took a special train and left about nine o'clock in the evening for Southampton on the south coast. They had a very rough voyage from England but landed safely in France at Le Havre at around three o'clock in the morning. A booming noise from the heavy firing of the guns at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle could be heard. The battalion marched immediately to a rest camp.
The next day, 10th March, the men marched to a place where they were herded into cattle trucks, thirty-five men to each truck. The train took them to Bailleul, a distance of more than two hundred miles and took twenty hours or more to get there. Harry and his dad spent the next seven weeks doing a lot of marching to different villages and Harry was digging trenches at night. They and their comrades also had some near misses with different kinds of bombs landing near them and just a few of the battalion lost their lives this way.
The 2nd Battle of Ypres commenced on 22nd April and ended on 25th May. When it started, Harry, his dad and the rest of B Company were at Zonnebeke and relieved A company after nightfall, going into the trenches. The following morning it was fairly quiet but shelling commenced in the afternoon, continued for some hours and was intermittent all night. During the night there was a lot of rifle fire. B Company carried rations and water for the East Surreys, making two dangerous journeys.
On 24th April the Germans began shelling at around half past four in the morning and the heavy bombardment continued throughout the day. The new road to the railway station and also the railway line were badly hit and the railway embankment showed bomb holes all the way along. By the early afternoon several men from the East Surrey regiment had been overcome by shrapnel fumes and were replaced by parties from Harry's B Company. In turn those parties also had to be relieved later in the day. The remaining B Company platoons were moved up about four o'clock into old trench positions 50 yards behind the firing line and A Company was brought up from Zonnebeke to the support trenches.
The next day, 25th April, was Harry's very last day on earth. Around half past nine in the morning the Germans released poison gas in large quantities but the men couldn't see the chlorine that was blinding and choking them. The next few hours were awful. Bombing began about ten o'clock. By now, they were all so used to it that nobody took much notice of a shell exploding. B Company in the near support trench began to suffer from shrapnel fumes about an hour later but the men were kept fit by cold water douches thanks to instructions contained in a General Order circulated during the previous day.
About half past eleven a shell burst directly in the trench and practically wiped out B Company's Number 6 platoon, making the trench a complete mess. Harry was one of the very unfortunate soldiers who lost their lives in that instant; he knew nothing about it and felt no pain.
In many instances so many men fell in such a short space of time that those left behind were too busy engaging the enemy to bury the fallen. At some point if time permitted, those who had succumbed would be buried near to or where they died and Harry was buried in the Zonnebeke trench where he fell, along with many others.
He still lies with many of his comrades in a field in Flanders; he has no known grave, like so many others. Harry's name can be seen on eight different memorials, which is most unusual for a soldier like him; most have their name on only one or two. Seven are here in England and the other is at the Menin Gate, Ypres where The Last Post is played for him and all the other fallen comrades at eight o'clock every evening, every day of every year. Although it did not bear his name, he also had a poppy planted temporarily in his memory at the Tower of London in 2014. As well as here, on this website, Harry's name is on the the National Archives Lives of the First World War website, the British Legion Every One Remembered website and the Surrey In The Great War website too. All of these will be permanent archives. There are several memorials to his 8th Middlesex Battalion.
I managed to get a few pictures of Harry, his sister, parents and grandparents. Having found out so much about him, it was so nice to be able to put a face to his name. Harry would be pleased to know that I am writing a book about him (a purely private venture), containing everything I have found out about him and his immediate family. In my will, the book and the eighteen postcards that Auntie Kate sent to Harry and his sister have been left to an organisation which will take good care of them.
Harry was only 18 years old when he left his family behind. His life, like a huge number of others, was cruelly ended so very early and was far too short.
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