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211112 ‘C’ Battery, 317th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Harry Halestrap was born around 1890 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, one of seven children of Samuel and Rhoda Halestrap. His father was a gardener and the family lived in South Street, Bishop’s Stortford. By 1911 Harry was employed as a grocer’s assistant and was boarding with the Page family at 70 Wards Row, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
Harry married Frances Agnes Rumsey in 1915, they had a daughter Joyce and the family lived at 1 Beryl Villas, Acton Lane in Sudbury. Harry was employed as a manager at Walkers Stores, where Edinburgh Woollen Mills is today. In December 1916 a report appeared in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press of a tribunal where Harry’s manager applied for his exemption on the grounds of being in a reserved occupation having successfully applied previously. It was confirmed that managers and buyers in the wholesale trade were now passed for Garrison Duty. As Harry was married the exemption was allowed to stand. At the tribunal in January 1917 Harry was passed for general service and given up to 1 March 1917 to sort out his place of work before enlisting in Sudbury.
Harry served with the Royal Field Artillery; his unit was attached to 317th Brigade, which in July 1916 had transferred to 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. In the autumn of 1918 the Division saw action at the battles of the Canal du Nord (27 September – 1 October) and Cambrai (8 – 9 October) phases of the Battle of the Hindenburg Line where the Allies launched large scale offensives to break through the Hindenburg Line in the final push to victory.
Harry died aged 28 on 8 October 1918 and lies buried in Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery, Nord, France. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in October 2012.
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