Ploegsteert Memorial
Ploegsteert Memorial 2016
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Henry White was born 1891 in Greencroft, Lanchester, County Durham, one of 8 children, 3 boys, 2 girls and 3 deceased (gender unknown) born to Ernest White 1863 Southminster Essex and Annie Sophia Pearson 1867 Acomb, Northumberland. His father migrated to the north east alone, living as a boarder with the Bowdick family at Greencroft where he worked as a coal miner. His parents were married October 8th 1887 in County Durham settling in Greencroft. Henry was also employed at the colliery marrying Alice D. Maddison born 1892, of Pelton, in 1910 in the district of Lanchester. They had two sons, John Henry Maddison White born 1913 and Henry E. White born 1915.
Henry White enlisted at Pelton in August 1914 assigned as Private 717 Durham Light Infantry 1st/8th Battalion, Northumbrian Division. They moved to Boldon Colliery, then Ravensworth Park and were in Newcastle-upon-Tyne by October. Completed training they embarked for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, landing at Boulogne, April 17th 1915, Henry was in the field by April 19th near Steenvoorde and rushed into battle as the Germans attacked nearby Ypres using poison gas for the first time. After taking heavy casualties during the Battle of St. Julien, part of the Second Battle of Ypres, in early May the 8th Battalion was attached to the 151st Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division. June 3rd 1915, the 1st/6th and 1st/8th merged until once again at full strength by August 1915. In August Private 717 Henry White Durham Light Infantry was wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres and died of his wounds August 9th 1915, his body buried on the battlefield marked with a cross bearing his service details.
After Armistice Berks House Cemetery was created inside where the Ploegsteert Memorial stands. The crosses marking the graves of Private 717 Henry White, Private 2422 G. Dent 8th D.L.I. and Private 2538 C. S. Ellyard 4th E.Y.R. were recovered from the battlefield but not their remains, possibly due to subsequent shelling. Henry’s name is written panel 8 and 9 of the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, Hainaut, near Ypres in Belgium which commemorates over 11,000 officers and servicemen from the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the sector and have no known grave.
Henry was 24 years old, his widow Alice received all monies due to him, a pension for herself and the children along with his awards of the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. She remarried in the district of Lanchester to James Rutherford in 1919.
Alice D. Rutherford died 1964 in Durham, Henry’s father died in 1918, his mother in 1931 in Annfield Plain, County Durham.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Henry White is remembered at Craghead on C120.01 and C120.04 and at Stanley on S135.04
