Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Research has identified Lance Corporal Harry Spencer, 201203, but we have been unable to find any military service records, therefore it has not been possible to carry out a signature comparison.

Harry Spencer was born in Leicester around 1890, to parents George, a shoemaker, and Hannah.  Harry was the eldest of 12 children and in 1911, he was working as a mineral water deliverer and living with his family in Avenue Road, Clarendon Park, Leicester.

Harry married Emily J Courts in 1911, and by 1915 the couple had four children.  Lance Corporal Spencer passed through Peterborough East Station on 8 July 1916, whilst his battalion was stationed at Somerleyton Camp, Lowestoft. In January 1917, they mobilised for war and disembarked at Le Havre.  They were engaged in various actions on the Western Front including the Battle of Arras.   http://bit.ly/1AtO8dj

On 26 May 1917 the 2/5 Battalion War Diary records the battalions advance from Ervillers to the Gomiecourt Area (about a mile away); ‘The Battalion was ordered to proceed as a working party to the forward area.  It paraded 312 strong and started digging an advanced traversed fire trench from a point (numbers) in a NW direction.  In spite of the shelling this was almost completed except in the places where casualties occurred.  There were 12 casualties.’   Lance Corporal Harry Spencer was one of the casualties; he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

Research continues, is this our soldier? Please get in touch if you can tell us more.