DRURY, Herbert


No.5202, Private, Herbert DRURY
Aged 22


8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment
Killed in Action on 1st July 1916


Herbert Drury was born in Little Welnetham (1st qtr 1895 Thingoe 4a:807), son of Charles and Eliza DRURY(née BRETT)

1901 census...Aged 6, he was at Low Green, Little Welnetham with his father Charles DRURY [49] hosrekeeper born Great Welnetham; his mother Eliza [48]; born Stanningfield; brothers Ernest [23] and William [19] both farm labourers and Albert [10]; sisters Sarah [21] and Ada [8]. All the children were born in Little Welnetham.

1911 census...Aged 16, houseboy, he was at Low Green, Little Welnetham with his widowed mother and brothers William and Albert (both farm labourers). His mother had lost 2 of her 9 children. His father had died in 1902.

On the pension card his mother was at 123 King's Road, Bury St. Edmunds.

The puzzling thing is that Herbert is named on the Great Welnetham memorial, not Little Welnetham.


He enlisted in Bury St.Edmunds.His death was recorded in the list published in the Bury Free Press on 12th August 1916.

It was the blackest day in British Army history, 60,000 casualties in one day, around 20,000 of them killed. The war diary is far too detailed for here, please click here to go to the Regimental war diary entry details

The battalion was attacking around the Montaban Ridge and CWGC records show 140 killed that day, 98 having no known grave and named on the Thiepval Memorial



Herbert Drury is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme pier/face 6B/6C

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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