Henry Ellis Hoad

[desperance]

Damn. This is further to my last:

arkessian checked the 1901 census, and found a Henry E Hoad born in Westgate in 1897: exactly the right age, exactly the right location. Hurrah!

Prompted by papersky, I checked records of soldiers killed in the First World War.

And found a record of one Henry Ellis Hoad, of Newcastle on Tyne. The site wouldn't tell me anything more without I paid up money, which I am reluctant to do; but even so...

Sigh.

Comments

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Oh, the poor things! If it was him, no wonder the envelope was preserved in the family bible.

I'm glad that you found it, though. It's touching, to know that people's thoughts are with him again, after all this time.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, man! That's a sad end to the story!

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

As you say: Damn.
Name: HOAD, Henry Ellis

Regiment, Corps etc.: York and Lancaster Regiment
Battalion etc.: 8th (Service) Battalion.
Last name: Hoad
First name(s): Henry Ellis
Initials: H E
Birthplace: St. Philip, Newcastle-On-Tyne
Enlisted: Newcastle-On-Tyne
Residence:
Rank: A/L/CPL.
Number: 34262
Date died: 07 June 1917
How died: Killed in action
Theatre of war: France & Flanders
Supplementary Notes: FORMERLY 24257, NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS., M.M

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I was afraid of that.

He would be dead now anyway. Born in 1897... And yet, he had such expectations. He could draw. They must have been so proud of him. They must have put his reference up in that family bible. Perhaps they put it there when they found he wasn't coming back? Perhaps more carefully because they had no grave to tend? So many lives, so many people just as real as us, so many threads of life, that do not touch.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

I don't blame you for being intrigued. I've been following your posts on the subject with great interest. But this last bit *is* sad. Maybe there's a story in it?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

God, you're good. Thank you.

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

*groans sadly*

As others pointed out, multiply this story by how many millions?

Well .... as an alternative .... you could give him a different life ending entirely through fiction?

I wonder if any other family members are left in your area who might be interested in this discovery. Can they be contacted through the military?

I lost an older cousin in Vietnam way back when (helicopter pilot) -- we still act as if he is present with us at large family gatherings. He probably is. :) Many of us have had indications of his continuing involvement in our lives, if you can accept that sort of thing. Almost all my uncles were WWII and Korean war vets... so yeah, this hits home pretty hard. I'll never forget the face of my uncle, sobbing like a child, at his son's funeral. I was twelve years old.

-Alyson-

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Young Harry Hoad was an excellent lad
His conduct was good and his schoolwork not bad,
He was good with his drawing since he was just small
But he's nobody's grand-dad at all.

He was somebody's pupil and somebody's son
He was well recommended, he worked and he won
They must have been proud, he was grown up and tall,
But he's nobody's grand-dad at all.

He was Corporal Hoad, he went over the top
In the war in the trenches that no-one could stop
He was brave and determined, he answered the call
Now he's nobody's grand-dad at all.

Now all that remains is his headmaster's word
And a cross in a field, and the fact that we heard
What we're learning today of his life and his fall,
For he's nobody's grand-dad at all.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

Genealogy is fascinating stuff to me, even when it's people I'm not related to.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

A boy of promise. Oh that's painful.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Jo, thank you. Truly.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

They're all boys of promise. That's the thing.

K. [who link hopped from Jo, desperance]

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hi, and welcome. And yes.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he might have other family who would want that letter. They might be traceable through the census and a bit of determination.

[timill]

Probably at Messines

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I am appalled that a battle where they lost 16,000 men was considered a success just because the opposition lost 25,000. Poor Harry Hoad.

ETA: Well, not "just." It was successfully planned and executed. But the scale of those casualties is almost unimaginable to me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

Yes, his Battalion was there.

On the Menin Gate

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

Name: HOAD, HENRY ELLIS
Initials: H E
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regiment/Service: York and Lancaster Regiment
Unit Text: 8th Bn.
Age: 20
Date of Death: 07/06/1917
Service No: 34262
Awards: M M
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 36 and 55.
Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

And if he's on the Menin Gate, there wasn't even a body found. His is one of 54,322 names thereon.

Now to see if I can find details of his M M

Re: On the Menin Gate

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

His MM was gazetted on 26 May 1917 but (as usual) without a citation. Probably awarded for an event 3-4 months earlier, but no easy way of finding out more. Still,something else that would made his parents proud of him.

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

'Jolly young Fusiliers, too good to die' - Robert Graves, in 'The Last Post' (June 1916).

Re: On the Menin Gate

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay. Again, thank you. Would there be any point in approaching his regiment, for details of the MM?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. Graves is to the point, often. (An awful thought occurs to me: if he had died, like so many of the WWI poets, d'you suppose they would have called him Robert 'War' Graves?)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Is possible. Also, I guess the letter and the photos go together. I might poke about a bit.