Current Information:

Age-22

2, Middlesborough Road, Edmonton

Born-Edmonton

On 12th August, the 9th Royal Fusiliers battalion of 36 Brigade, 12th Division were relieved from the front line near Arras and moved back into support in the Monchy defences. Three days later they moved further back to the Wancourt-Feuchy line where they spent the next week sending up working parties to the front line each night. These tasks meant either providing carrying parties to take supplies of all kinds to the front line or working at trench digging, road making, railway laying and host of other tasks, sometimes under command of the Royal Engineers. The activities usually took place at night and were often very dangerous. Harassing artillery and machine-gun fire from the enemy would be kept up intermittently throughout the night designed to disrupt the work as much as possible. Tracks along which carrying parties had to travel to reach the front line were known to the German gunners and targeted accordingly. Many a soldier met his death while in reserve as was quite likely the case with Henry Bales on 16th August.