Henry John BISHOP

Further information

Henry John Bishop was born in Charlton between January and March 1898. He was the third of five children born to Thomas John Bishop and Kate Bishop (née Keene).

Henry’s brothers and sisters were Edith Clara (bn 1894), Sydney Thomas Walter (bn 1897), Marjorie Kathleen (bn 1901) and Gwendolen Kate (bn 1905).

Henry’s father was a Telegraph Instrument Maker. Census returns show the family living at 642 Woolwich Road, Charlton in 1901, and at 60 Cantwell Road, Shooters Hill by 1911.

Military service

Henry John Bishop enlisted in Woolwich. He served with the 1^st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). He was killed in action on 20 November 1917 and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial in the Louverval Military Cemetery.

The memorial commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen from Britain and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai whose graves are not known. The battle began on 20 November 1917, when the British Third Army launched an attack towards Cambrai. The method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, a large number of tanks were used in significant force.