51st (Graduated) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
Henry Joseph Slatter (known as Harry) was born at Norton on 12 August 1900. He was the son of Charles Norton (1858-1907), a farm worker and his wife Ellen (née Griffiths: 1863-1915). The couple had six children, Harry was the younger of two boys but three of their children had died by the time of the 1911 Census.
Harry’s father, Charles, died in 1906 and by 1911 the remaining family was living at Cold Elm, Norton: Harry was at school.
Upon reaching his 18th birthday in August 1918 Harry would have been conscripted into the Army and commenced training. Originally, he would not have been sent abroad until he reached his 19th birthday but the severe losses experienced by the Army in the spring of 1918 had reduced the threshold to 18 years and six months.
Harry’s posting was to the 51st (Graduated*) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, based at Foxhall Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk. The Graduated Battalions had been created in the summer of 1917 to provide specialist training to infantrymen under 19, who had completed basic training.
He was never to see service abroad as on 22 November 1918 he died, aged 18, at the military hospital in Colchester. The cause of death is not known but it is highly likely that he was a victim of the ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic raging at that time. He was brought home for burial in churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Norton, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
* The CWGC register shows his unit as ‘Garrison’ which is erroneous.
Researched by Graham Adams 8 April 2020