Peasants to Puddles
My Family History - By Nicky Rowberry

Horace Ingle - Lance Corporal 202762

This page is dedicated to the memory of Horace Ingle who died on 9th September 1916 in France.

Horace Ingle died on 9th September 1916 in France, one of the many millions of men who lost their lives in World War 1. It seemed sad for him to have died and all but these bare facts remembered, so I've tried to find out at least a little about his life and what happened to him in the war, before his death aged 41.

Horace was born on 8th February 1875 in Rendlesham, Suffolk, to Henry Ingle and his second wife Jane Evans, who had married in Lambeth in 1866. Henry had been married previously, so by the time Horace was born he had several grown up half-siblings. Of his full siblings, Horace was 6th out of 8. By the 1881 census the family were living in Denton, Norfolk and Henry was working as farm bailiff and Horace was at school. The table below gives a transcription from the 1881 census.

Henry Ingle was much older than his second wife and died in early 1891 aged about 76, when Horace was only about 15. In the 1891 census, the widowed Jane Ingle is living in Ipswich with her younger children, Horace included. Horace had left school by this time and was working as an errand boy.

By 1901 the family had moved to Wales (his mother Jane was from Cardiff) and were living in Whitchurch, Glamorgan. Horace was there working as a foreman at a fuel works; also living there were his widowed mother and 2 brothers Charles & Frederick.

Horace's mother died in 1904, but he was still in Whitchurch in 1905 as he was listed on the electoral register. But by 1911 Horace had not only moved but had a new job. He was now living in the Royal Oak Hotel in Nottingham, where he worked as a waiter and groom.

War was declared on 28th July 1914 and Horace enlisted in December 1915. Fortunately his army service records survive (many of them were destroyed by a bomb in 1940) and show that he initially joined the 10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment as a Private on 2nd December 1915, but was then transferred to the 4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment as a Lance Corporal.

You can now look at the Medal Roll cards from the first world war online. These show a soldier's name, rank and what medals they were entitled to. Due to copyright issues, I don't think I can reproduce the image of the medal card, so instead I've transcribed it.

The index card indicates that he would have been entitled to two medals. The British Medal was awarded to servicemen who served in a theatre of war between 5th August 1914 and 11th November 1918. The Victory Medal (Allied Victory Medal) was awarded for service in any operational theatre over the same time frame. The Star was awarded to all those who served in any theatre of war against Germany between 5th August 1914 and 31st December 1915. As I understand it, he didn't get the Star because, although he'd enlisted by the end of 1915, he wasn't actually posted abroad until 1916.

His service records show that he was living at 3 Shelton Street, Nottingham at the time of his attestation, not far from where he had been working in 1911. He'd claimed to be 39 years and 8 months in December 1915, when actually he was closer to 40 years and 10 months. Whether this was a deliberate lie to smooth the enlistment or a genuine mistake, who knows. He is also described as 5 foot 4 inches with good physical development and passed fit for service.

The service records show that he left Folkestone on 4th August 1916 and arrived in Boulogne the same day. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 15th August. Less than a month later, he was reported missing in the field on 9th September 1916. He was not officially declared dead until July the following year. You can now read many of the WW1 War Diaries online, so I have looked at those for the relevant period of the 1/4th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. On 16th August 1916 they were stationed at Mericourt area of the Somme when a draft of 100 "other ranks" arrived from the Manchester Regiment. Horace Ingle was probably one of these men. By 1st September they had moved to trenches at Millencourt. By 8th September they were in the Delville Wood area and subject to heavy shelling. By the end of 9th September 1916 79 other ranks were reported as missing due to the shelling and machine gun fire - Horace Ingle would have been one of these.

The only report in the newspapers I've found so far is the one below from the Nottingham Evening Post. Image © Reach plc. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

Horace is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France. His body was never found so he is one of the many thousands of men who were missing in the Somme. He may well be commemorated on a War Memorial back in the UK too, but because he moved around so much (Suffolk, Wales, Nottingham), I've yet to track one down.

The final piece of documentation I could find for Horace was his entry in the Army Register of Soldiers' Effects. It lists the amout of money in his account at the time of his death and the amount, including the War Gratuity, that was eventually paid to his next of kin - in this case to his sister Elizabeth Campion (she is listed as next of kin on his service records) and his brothers. For Horace the total amount came to just £5 13s 3d - not much to show for the ultimate sacrifice.

So far I've only got the grainy photo of Horace (many thanks to ww1cemeteries.com) at the top of this page. It would be lovely to get a slightly clearer photo of him. He had quite a few siblings, so hopefully there are a few descendants out there. If anyone has a photo of him, I would love to hear from you - just email me at: n.rowberry@btinternet.com

In researching Horace's final days, several sites have been invaluable, so I've included links to some of them here.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is a great site to start with to give you the basic details you would need to then start digging deeper:

The National Archives at Kew now hold a huge number of records, many of which are available online, but it is well worth a visit down there if you can make it:

The British Newspaper Archive holds digitised images of newspapers from all over Britain. New pages are added weekly and it can be a great way of adding to your research:

If any of the above is of further interest, please feel free to contact me at: n.rowberry@btinternet.com

© Nicky Rowberry 2023

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Peasants to Puddles - My Family History. By Nicky Rowberry