1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry
Harry Waters was born in 1887, the son of William Henry and Mary Jane (née Tubb) Waters.
According to the 1911 Census the couple had seven children, of whom six were surviving in 1911.
At the age of 13, Harry was working a telegraph messenger at Cirencester Post Office and on 28 October 1904 he joined the Army at Gloucester and was posted to the 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry (SLI).
Unfortunately his Army Service record has not survived but his Medal Index Card indicates that by the time he went to France on 11 September 1914 he had attained the rank of Sergeant.
The 1st Battalion of the SLI were part of 11 Brigade, 4 Division and in early October they were located in trenches at Ploegsteert Wood, south of Ypres.
At 9am on 21 October the battalion took part in a successful bayonet charge to clear the village of Le Gheer and to cut off the Germans retiring from positions to the west which were also under attack.
It seems likely that Serjeant Waters was wounded during this action as the Gloucestershire Echo of 29 October 1914 reported that Mr and Mrs Waters (of 16 Gloucester Street, Cirencester) had received news that their son had died on 25 October (age 27) on the Hospital Ship Albion from a gunshot wound to the head received in battle.
Surgeons had tried to save him but his injuries were so bad that he could only speak to give his home address.
Harry’s remains were conveyed to Cirencester and on 28 October he was buried in the Chesterton Cemetery, in the same grave as his sister, Florence, who had died on 23 December 1913, age 29. His private stone headstone contains the words ‘erected by his comrades in loving memory of (Harry)’, details of his sister Florence are also stated and it also commemorates his brother Lance Corporal Jack Waters of the Post Office Rifles who was killed in action at St Quentin on 23 March 1918, age 25.
Lance Corporal Waters (371559 — formerly 3804) of 8th Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozières Memorial to the Missing.
The funeral was a military one, with an escort of eighteen members of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (from the twenty-five present guarding the Great Western Railway water works at Kemble). It was attended by several family members and representatives of his large number of friends in Cirencester and former work colleagues.
Research by Graham Adams 9 January 2016