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2486 1st/9th Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles)
Harold Bond was born in Belchamp Walter in 1890, the second of three children of Samuel and Alice Bond. His father was a gardener and the family moved from Belchamp Walter to 52 Ballingdon Street in Sudbury. The family later moved to 15 Middleton Road.
For some years Harold worked a weaving loom at Messrs Cross’s Factory in Sudbury, he later moved to London where he was employed in New Bond Street. He was living in Harrow Road, London when he enlisted and landed with his battalion at Le Havre in November 1914; which indicates he was serving in the Territorial Army before the outbreak of war.
His battalion formed part of 13th Brigade, 5th Division and they held the trenches in the Wulverghem sector in Belgium at the beginning of 1915. Harold was wounded and invalided home with frost bitten feet and stayed at home for twelve months. He was hoping to qualify for a commission.
In February 1916 the battalion transferred to 169th Brigade, 56th (London) Division. On 1 July 1916 they saw action at a diversionary attack at Gommecourt in the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme where the soldiers managed to take the first two enemy trenches. They managed to reach a third trench but the enemy artillery trapped the men as the German infantry gradually recaptured the lost trenches. Attempts to send British reinforcements resulted in a very costly failure.
Harold was reported ‘missing’ in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 9 August 1916 and later officially recorded as killed in action on 1 July 1916. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.
He was awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Thiepval Memorial in April 2006 and April 2009.
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