Current Information:

Age-37

Dranouter Churchyard, Belgium

On 13th February, 1915, the 1st Norfolk battalion of 15 Brigade, 5th Division moved into trenches on the Wytschaete road near Messines in Belgium where they remained until relieved on 18th February. The battalion diary provides little information about this period in the front line and the circumstances behind the death of Herbert Davis on 14th February are not known. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.