Harry Biswell

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918

HARRY GEORGE BISWELL

Harry Biswell was a team member of the Three Horseshoes public house Quoit team and on leaving school worked as a domestic groom, before enlisted into the army at St Albans during the first week of September, 1914, four weeks after the declaration of war. Posted to the 12th battalion the Essex Regiment; this new battalion was assembling at the army barracks at Shorncliffe in Kent.  In April 1915 the 12th battalion converted to a Training reserve battalion, its soldiers transferred to other battalions of the Essex regiment on completion of their training.

The 9th battalion Essex regiment was posted to France during May 1915, with Harry arriving in France on the 24th August 1915. On closer inspection of the 9th battalion war diary I noted an extra line had been added, out of sequence date wise and written by a different hand than the rest of the page, stating on the 10th September, a draft of :1 sergeant, 1 corporal and 28 men from 12th battalion. Harry would have been one of these replacement soldiers, arriving at the front line, 17 days after entering France.

The 9th Essex were serving in the front line when Harry arrived and it was here he would spend the next five days until relieved by the Suffolk regiment for 6 days, before a return to the front.

On the 25th September the British army launched major attacks at various places along the front line with the Germans, known as the battle of Loos .To cause confusion among the Germans faint attacks were started by troops not involved in these assaults. The 9th Essex were to make the Germans believe they were about to be attacked by placing on the top of its trenches facing the Germans at every yard a bundle of straw soaked in paraffin. At 5a.m. the British artillery bombarded the Germans and at 5.55 a.m. the straw was set alight and smoke grenades were thrown by the best throwers. Having caused a dense cloud of smoke which slowly drifted towards the enemy who seeing the smoke became very alarmed and began rifle and machine gun fire at the British lines and also sent up red flares indicating to the German artillery that help was urgently needed. The response was that around 130 very accurate artillery shells fell on Harry’s comrades causing a number of casualties with A company taking most. Harry, a member of A company was wounded in four places, having spent just 15 days serving with the 9th Essex.

The gazette carried a photo of Harry in February 1916 and noted he had been wounded in four places after recovering from his wounds and upon his return to France Harry was posted to the 11th battalion Essex regiment. This battalion relieved the 2nd Durham Light Infantry at the front just north of the city of Ypres on 2nd May. Taking over the trenches known as Nile and Butts, Headingley Lane and Dawson City.

On the 5th May, during an inter company relief between A and B company’s Harry was shot in the head whilst coming out of the front line and taken to a dressing station, there he died of his wounds the following day.

The Gazette newspaper carried this article on June 24th 1916 and always spelt the name Biswell as Bisnall.

MEMORIAL

Harry was included on the order of service for the parish church at Easter 1919, and was named on the village school memorial, on the Leverstock Green memorial as well as Hemel Hempstead town memorial.                                                                                                                                                      He is buried in Essex Farm cemetery Belgium plot 3II, row M, grave 21. Harry was 20 years old.

 Link to Harry's grave: 

Essex Farm was a farm renamed by the British and the land to the south was used as a dressing station cemetery from April 1915 to August 1917. It was in this cemetery that Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Medical Corps wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields” during May 1915.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

that mark our place and in the sky

the larks still bravely singing fly

scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead, short days ago

we lived felt dawn saw sunset glow

loved and were loved and now we lie

in Flanders fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe

to you from failing hands we throw

the torch, be yours to hold it high

if ye break faith with us who die

we shall not sleep though poppies grow

in Flanders fields.

www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/mccrae

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918