No.7194, Private, Christopher HOUGHTON
Aged 27
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Christopher Houghton was born in Isleham in 1887 (Newmarket Q1-1887 3B:588), 3rd son of Robert and Elizabeth HOUGHTON (née WEBBER).
1891 census...Aged 4, he was at Waterside Drove, Isleham with his father Robert HOUGHTON [40] a gardener's labourer; his mother Elizabeth [34]and brothers Robert [9], William V. [7]and Bertie [1]. The entire family were born in Isleham. 1901 census...Aged 14, a farm labourer, he was at Hives Drove, Isleham with his parents, sister Minnie [21], brothers Robert and Victor (both farm labourers) and Bertie. Also new siblings, brothers Joseph [8] and John [2] and sister Julie E. [4] all born in Isleham. 1911 census...Aged 24, he was now a private with the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, at Mustapha Pasha Barracks, Alexandria, Egypt. His parents were still at Hives Drove, Isleham with his brothers Victor, Bertie, Joseph and John and sister Julia. Brother Robert had married and was in Sun Street, Isleham. He was a younger brother of William Victor Houghton who was killed on the 1st day of the Somme (1-7-1916). see here |
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Attested in Suffolk Regiment in Bury St Edmunds. As a regular in the Army he was of course one of the first to be sent to France and unfortunately the 1st Isleham man to die. His Army records have not survived. The 2nd Battalion were in Dublin on the day war broke out, 4th August 1914, and by 10th they were ready to embark direct to France. Moving by marching and by train they eventually reached Mons on the 22nd. Then the German advance strengthened and the Retreat from Mons began for the British Army. By the evening of the 25th August the 2nd Suffolks were halted just outside Montay. After a brief halt they moved on, to Pont des Quatre Vaux, half a mile west of Le Cateau. On the 26th the order went out from Brigadier General Rolt that there was to be "no retreat...there is to be no thought of retirement". After six hours of continuous and overwhelming fire, they still held, but the Germans had mustered an massive force which nearly totally surrounded the British and by just before 3 the Argyll Highlanders and the Suffolks were overcome. A battalion in the British army was approximately 1,000 men and this day the 2nd Suffolks suffered 720 casualties of all ranks. The remnants slipped away and the next day, at dawn the roll call revealed the Battalion under command of Lt Oakes was 'A' Coy 31; 'B' Coy 19; 'C' Coy 38 and 'D' Coy 16 with 7 attached men, a total of 111. A few stragglers caught up later in the day. The dead numbered 74, only three have known graves. Numbers at this stage of the war are notoriously inaccurate. The Imperial War Graves Commission had not even been thought of. In fact the concept of even finding the dead and burying them individually was not generally known. Up to then it would have been normally only been some officers buried or brought back to England. It took a man called Fabian Ware to start organising the currently accepted method of recording, and burying the dead, where possible, in individual graves. |
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details