Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
Harry Ernest Such was born in Cheltenham in 1877 and served in the South African War in the 1st Gloucestershire Royal Engineer Volunteers, which he had joined on 27 February 1900 and was discharged, as surplus to requirements, on 29 May 1901, having returned from South Africa. On 21 December 1908 he joined the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (RGH). He was later awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
In 1908 he married Louie Sollars and at the time of the 1911 Census they lived at Belle Ewart, New Street, Cheltenham, together with a daughter (a son followed in 1914). His occupation was described as an engineer fitter and toolmaker.
Harry was mobilised on 5 August 1914 and posted to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars where, as a noted marksman and winner of numerous awards for rifle shooting, he served as a musketry instructor. Some papers from his Army Pension Record have survived and these reveal that a medical board convened on 1 December 1915 diagnosed him as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, which had originated in July 1911, as a result of ordinary military service. Service camp conditions, since the outbreak of war, had aggravated the condition and he was discharged as unfit for military service on 31 December 1915. He was granted a pension in respect of total incapacity. He died of his condition in Cheltenham on 26 April 1918 (according to the CWGC Register Probate records state the date as 20 April), leaving an estate of £40 to his widow. He was 41 years of age.
He was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial and his service in South Africa is recorded on the monument to that campaign in the Long Gardens, Promenade Cheltenham, close to the Great War Memorial. Photographs of him are present in The Graphic of 22 August 1914, showing him with shooting trophies, and also 4 May 1918.
Researched by Graham Adams 9 February 2013
(Acknowledgement to ‘Leaving All that was Dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)