The Friends Of The Suffolk Regiment

  • Welcome
  • Introduction
    • The 'Family'
  • Publications
    • Operation 'Legacy'
  • Join Us
  • 'Honours and Awards'
  • Battlefield Tours
  • The Team
  • Friends News
  • Contact
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
    • The 'Family'
  • Publications
    • Operation 'Legacy'
  • Join Us
  • 'Honours and Awards'
  • Battlefield Tours
  • The Team
  • Friends News
  • Contact

OPERATION LEGACY
​A UNIQUE DAY-BY-DAY REMEMBRANCE, 2014 - 2018

follow below, the great war service of the suffolk regiment,
​from mobilisation to the armistice

"A Large Gathering Of Sympathetic Friends"

11/3/2016

 
Picture
In March 1916, the Reserve Battalion of 4th Suffolk were training hard at Halton Camp near Tring.
Here the Battalion were getting ready to go to war. A cadre of senior NCOs and officers including Major F.W. Turner; veteran of Neuve-Chapelle, were training drafts of men who were to join the Battalion in France. One man who was itching to go, was Private Herbert Percy Welham.
Herbert joined the 3/4th Battalion of The Suffolk Regiment in 1915 when he was only 17 years old and was soon with them in Camp at Halton. 
Born in the small Suffolk village of Somersham, Herbert lived in the quaintly named “Leather Bottle Hill” in nearby Little Blakenham when war was declared in 1914.
Though under age, he already had two brothers serving with 1/4th Suffolk in France and he was keen, as soon as he could, to join them. It was whilst training that Herbert was taken ill with double pneumonia, which in turn, led to his dying from pericarditis in Aylesbury Military Hospital on 11th March 1916.
His body was brought home to Suffolk with six members of his Battalion carrying his coffin, covered in wreaths from the family and the Regiment. A volley was fired at the graveside and the Last Post was sounded. The churchyard it was reported “was filled with a large gathering of sympathetic friends.”
Today, one hundred years on, his family have returned to his grave to remember him; the only man from the village of Little Blakenham to die in the Great War.


Comments are closed.
    Picture
    Welcome to our online 'blog' charting the history of the many Battalions of the Suffolk Regiment and the part they played in the Great War.
    Starting back in March 2014, we have recorded the events of 100 years ago on the centenary of their happening.
    Keep checking back to see how the Great War is progressing for the men of the Suffolk Regiment.
    ​

    Archives

    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.