699 RIFLEMAN HARRY PRESS
3RD BATTALION RIFLE BRIGADE
KILLED IN ACTION
27TH OCTOBER 1914
AGE 32 YEARS
Harry Press Took to give him his birth name was born during the first quarter of 1882, the son of Charles, a cabinet maker and Mary (née Took). By the time of the 1891 Census what had been believed to be a hyphenated name with his mother’s surname of Took had been dropped from this and all of Harry’s future records. In 1894 Charles died leaving Mary to bring up three of their five children at her home in Chediston Street, Halesworth. From the age of five Harry would have attended the town’s boys’ school where he must have shown some talent in sport for in 1901, he was a member of the Halesworth Red Star football team. Prior to his death his father had been employed by Smith and Co at the East Suffolk Motor Body and Carriage Works located in Bridge Street, Halesworth, where, even after his death, it would have been a common practice for a son to follow his father into his trade. So, after completing his education in 1896, Harry had become an apprentice coach builder with Smiths. On completing his apprenticeship and receiving his indentures, he had continued to live with his mother and two brothers at their new home in Wissett Road.
In 1902 Harry enlisted in the town’s ‘F’ Company of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment where, in November of that year, while still a recruit, he had won a shooting prize of 5/- (25p). It may have been while serving with the Volunteers that he decided to put his civilian life on hold to take the opportunity to see some of the world outside of Suffolk by enlisting into the regular army. During the middle months of 1905, at the age of twenty-three years, Harry left the family home to enlist in the Rifle Brigade, becoming a Rifleman with the regimental number of 699. After receiving his training at the Regimental Depot located in Winchester, Hampshire he had received his posting to the 2nd Battalion Rifles who served in India from 1906 to 1914. This service ‘Out East’ was mentioned in two articles written after his death, the first in the Halesworth Times newspaper of 1st December 1914, which announced that he had been killed in action, the second an obituary notice published in Lamberts Almanack of 1916. After completing his regular commitment around 1911 he returned to Halesworth to continue his civilian life while remaining on the army reserve list. On his return to the town he once again found work with Smith and Co., but due to his mother and youngest brother having moved to Lowestoft he may have had to find lodgings or have moved into his elder sister Mary’s home at 60 Chediston Street. Once back in Halesworth he would have no doubt settled back into a normal civilian life while entertaining his workmates with stories of his time in India serving King and Country. Little did he realise that within a few years he would be back in khaki.
With the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, Harry would have had several years left to serve in the army reserves. He would therefore have been one of the first to be recalled to the Colours. On his mobilisation notice he would have been directed to join the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade who, after returning from their base in Cork, Ireland had from 18th August been located in the Cambridge and Newmarket area, taking on reinforcements and preparing for war, before crossing to France, landing at St Nazaire as part of the 6th Division on 12th September 1914. Early the following morning they boarded a train bound for the town of Coulommiers that lies to the east of Paris, where, after their arrival, they continued their journey north on foot, marching over the following few days over sixty miles to the village of Dhuizel where they arrived during the morning of 21st September 1914. That afternoon the Rifle Companies of the battalion moved forward to relieve men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, who were entrenched in positions two miles closer to the German’s line of advance. Within a day the Riflemen had taken their first casualties of the war, losing seven men killed, with one officer and twenty-one men wounded. Over the following weeks the 3rd Rifles, being light infantrymen who were used to more mobile warfare, now had to adapt to a more static role, as they moved both in and out of the firing lines, while at the same time taking more and more casualties, although nowhere near the large numbers they would suffer later in the war. On 25th October the battalion moved once again into the front line to the east of the village of La Guernerie. It was there, after a short battle, that Harry was reported missing in action, with his body never being found. He is today remembered on the Pioegsteert Memorial to the Missing in the Hainault region of Belgium.
Harry’s mother Mary, who had once again moved and was now living in the Paddington area of West London, would have heard of his loss there, as on his recall to the army he had listed Mary as his next of kin and benefactor of any monies owing to Harry on his death. For this she received a small pension of 3s 6d (18p) per week and a lump sum gratuity totalling £9 6s 1d (£9.30p). She would also have been entitled to claim his medal awards of the 1914 Star bar trio. The dated bar had only been issued to those who had actually been under enemy fire between 5th August and 22nd November 1914. Those men would proudly go on to call themselves ‘Old Contemptibles’ after the German Kaiser’s mocking description of them being a contemptible little army. Mary would also have been able to claim Harry’s named memorial plaque and scroll.
The location of these is unknown.
Below is a recently found early postcard of Chediston Street. During the time and for several years after the Press family had lived there, it had a very bad reputation for the number of pubs, illegal ale houses, as well houses of ill repute. As can be seen the card has been written by ‘Edith’ who with many others considered the street as being ‘The Slums of Halesworth’ (see other stories).
