Remembering Henry

On August 4th, one hundred years ago, we declared war on an increasingly militant Germany, and the whole horror of the Great War was unleashed on an unsuspecting generation. Most families will have at least one member who served in the First World War; most will have somebody who was either killed, maimed or injured during it. To this day, the wounds of that particular conflict are still raw, and it's effects echo down the generations. For sheer brutality and stupidity, some would would say it has never been equaled. 

Henry Hunt

My Grandfather, Henry Hunt served as a Bombardier in the 277th Royal Field Artillery. He didn't do anything that tens of thousands of others didn't do - he was just an ordinary soldier, serving his country. My Dad knew very little about his father's war service. He was only six when Henry died of pneumonia and heart failure. His lungs and health had been permanently damaged by mustard gas at a place called 'Wipers'. Dad told me all this when I was about seven or eight. I remembered it because I thought Wipers was an odd name for a place - we now know it as Ypres. Looking into the records, I think he was probably gassed at the Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele (q.v.)

But, for now, I'd just like to remember Henry's war service, and his short life. He has no other memorial anywhere else, but here on the Internet. 

I shall be posting here regularly over the next few years about the Great War, the Royal Field Artillery, the 277th Brigade, and what I personally feel about the war. These brave men should not be forgotten.