Current Information:

Age-27

3, Carberry Road Upper Norwood

Born-Westminster

On 1st March, 1915, the 2nd Shropshire Light Infantry of 80 Brigade, 27th Division, moved into the front line at St Eloi near Ypres where they remained until relieved on 3rd March when they returned to billets in Dickebusch. Henry Hostler was one of two men killed on 2nd March but the battalion diary provides very little information about their time spent here so the circumstances behind his death 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.