- See Henry Leslie Pearce’s entry on the Board of Trade’s Ancestry public tree.
- This information updates the group’s previous research published on the former DTI website (now archived by the National Archives).
- Do you have any more information about Henry Leslie Pearce? If so the War Memorial Research Group would love to hear from you
Name recorded on Board of Trade Memorial: H. L. Pearce
Born: February 1890
Date of Death: 24 May 1917
Age at death: 27
Service, Regiment, Corps, etc: London Regiment
Unit, Ship, etc: 2/15th Battalion (Civil Service Rifles)
Enlisted: 5 August 1914, Somerset House
Rank: Sergeant (Service No: 890 and 530454)
Decorations: WW1 Service Medals (Victory Medal and British War Medal)
War (and theatre): WW1 (Balkans)
Manner of Death: Killed in Action (KIA)
Family Details: Son of Henry and Katherine Pearce, Great East Standen Manor, Newport, Isle of Wright
Residence: Hampstead, London
Home Department: Board of Trade – Railway Department
Civilian Rank: Second Division Clerk
Cemetery or Memorial: Karasouli Military Cemetery, Greece (E.1101); Board of Trade War Memorial; Scroll within Civil Service Rifles Memorial at Somerset House, London
Biography:
Henry Leslie Pearce was born in about March 1890 in Hendon, Middlesex. His baptism record is dated 7 April 1890 with his parents living at “Mayville”, The Hyde. His parents were Henry Pearce (1853-?) and Alice Mary Julia Palk (1853-1897). His father was described as a ‘gentleman’ on the baptism record and a metal merchant in census records.
In the 1891 census, young Henry is aged a year old and living with his parents and servant in Hendon. Just six years later in 1897, his mother Alice died when Henry was only 7 years old.
By the 1901 census the Henry is living at “The Laurels”, Fore Street, Ipplepen, Devon with his father (now a widower) and his grandmother, Ellen Ellis.
We also know that Henry’s father remarried to Catherine Whitworth (1859-1935) on 18 July 1901 in St Mark’s Church in St John’s Wood. Together they had a daughter, Katherine Helen Pearce (1903-1998) born in Ipplepen, Devon on 24 January 1903 and 1911 were living at Chardstock, Devon.
At the same time in the 1911 census, Henry is aged 21 and renting a room in house owned by Mary Gear at 7 Gladys Road, West Hampstead, London. He is recorded working for the Civil Service as a Second Division Clerk and is known to have worked in the Railway Department.
During WW1, like so many young men left his work and attested to serve as a Sergeant on 5 August 1914 in the 2/15th Civil Service Rifles as part of the London Regiment. This was a pre-war volunteer territorial unit made up of colleagues and headquartered at Somerset House. A full and comprehensive history of the regiment during WW1 called “The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War: ‘All Bloody Gentlemen’” was published in 2005 by former DTI Civil Servant Jill Knight (1946-20025)
After training and brief service in Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising, Henry spent a year in France. The 2nd Civil Service Rifles formed part of the 60th (2/2nd London) Division which served on the Western Front from June 1916. The battalion then moved to Salonika in Greece in November 1916.
The fighting on the Macedonian Front is one of the lesser known aspects of WW1. A small Franco-British force had first arrived in Salonika in October 1915 to support the Serbian Army. They arrived too late to prevent a Serbian reverse, but remained and created a defensive front on Greek soil. You can find out more about the Salonika campaign on the National Army Museum website.
In a former DTI News article published in October 2000 called “The Forgotten Men: Part 1”, a reference to Henry Leslie Pearce is made as follows: “The war story of this thoughtful and observant countryman from Devon emerges from his correspondence. In letters home, he cheerfully describes his duties as quartermaster sergeant, downplays the dangers he faces, and only occasionally lets slip his longing for the English countryside and his plans to marry and start a new life after the war.“
We know that Henry was killed in action, aged 27, on 24 May 1917 by a Bulgarian sniper whilst serving at Salonika in the Balkans. His death was reported in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette in June 1917:
Henry’s last resting place is in Karasouli Military Cemetery on the edge of the Greek town of Polykastro (formerly Karsouli) which is located about 73 kilometers from Thessaloniki.
Henry is also remembered on the Board of Trade War Memorial and a scroll stored within the Civil Service Rifles War Memorial in London. We have not identified Henry’s name on any local or school memorials, but he is associated (but named in person) on the Newport War Memorial on the Isle of Wight (since his father moved to live at Great East Standon Manor, near Newport in the 1920s).
Acknowledgements: Photograph of Leslie Pearce, aged 21 (courtesy of D Langford) and Photograph of grave of H Pearce at Karasouli Military Cemetery, Greece (courtesy of Adrian Wright)
Board of Trade War Memorial 