Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire Regiment)
Harry Leonard Squibb was the son of William and Rosina Squibb of Dorchester, where he was born in 1890, one of their six children shown on the 1891 Census. His father was a bricklayer and became a widower in 1902, when Rosina died, aged 53.
In 1911 Harry had moved to Devon and was living in lodgings at 5 Clifton Terrace, Torquay, a single man, whose occupation on the census of that year is shown as ‘grocer’s assistant’.
As with so many men from the Great War, his Army Service Record did not survive the bombing of London in 1940 and the only clues we have as to his service career are contained in his Medal Index Card (MIC) at the National Archives and details contained in the CWGC Register
We know from the CWGC record that he served with the Wiltshire Regiment and achieved the rank of Serjeant. This was probably a temporary promotion as his MIC shows him to be a Lance Corporal. He is shown, on the MIC, as going to France on 11 December 1914 and a search of casualties with service numbers near to his in Soldiers Died in the Great War indicates that he probably served with the 1st Battalion. As this battalion went to France early in the war he was probably in an early reinforcement draft and may well have joined the Army shortly before the outbreak of war.
It is possible that he went through the war unscathed, or at least without any significant injury but in the absence of any confirming papers this cannot be verified. He evidently rose to the rank of Serjeant, which indicates that by the time of the Armistice he was very much a ‘veteran’. He possibly stayed on in the Army beyond 1918/19.
The circumstances of his tragic death are contained in a report of an inquest held at Manor Farm, Quedgeley in late July 1920, in the Gloucester Journal of 7 August 1920. The farm was a training centre for discharged soldiers, where Serjeant Squibb was a trainee. Evidently he had had some (unspecified) medical problems but had never shown suicidal tendencies. Shortly after 10pm on 28 July 1920 he visited the Reverend E J Bartlett at Quedgeley Rectory. He told him he was in trouble and asked if it was a sin to commit suicide. The Rector accompanied him to the superintendent of the training centre and whilst they were conversing Squibb ran away. A search was carried out and he was discovered dead in a poultry run on the farm, having cut his throat with a razor. The Coroner recorded a verdict of suicide, whilst of an unsound mind.
Serjeant Harry Leonard Squibb died on 28 July; he was 29 years old. He was buried in the churchyard of Quedgeley Parish Church, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. His name is also inscribed on the Quedgeley War Memorial, although there appears no direct local connection, other than with the Manor Farm Training Centre.
Researched by Graham Adams 29 June 2014