Henry Underwood

Henry Underwood was born in 1878 in Derby and worked as a carrier for the fruit trade. His married Annie Stones (born 8th December 1878) in 1896 at Nottingham she worked as a lace hand. They had five children; Harry, born in 1901, Arthur, born in 1903 William, born in 1906, Ernest, born in 1908 and Kate born 1911. All the children were born in Nottingham. The family lived at 34 Upper Eldon Street, Sneinton, Nottingham. Commencing 6th December 1915 his widow was awarded a pension of 27 shillings a week.

Carrier for the fruit trade

Pte. Underwood volunteered for service and following training was drafted to France amongst a batch of replacements. He reached the battalion on 27/12/1914. Having survived the fighting at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 Pte. Underwood was involved in the fight at the Rouge Bancs north west of Fromelles, which took place on 09/05/1915. The Sherwood Foresters advanced but were soon under heavy machine gun fire. The wire had barely been cut and therefore the battalion was forced to fall back to their breastwork. A further attack was attempted, but again they were cut down by machine gunfire. At the end of the day 55 officers and men had been killed and 257 wounded. Pte. Underwood was amongst the wounded and was sent down the line to Merville Hospital, where he died on 11/05/1915. He was buried at Merville Communal Cemetery.

In memoriam published 11th May 1916 in the Nottingham Evening Post :- UNDERWOOD. – Died of wounds, May 11th, 1915, Private H. Underwood, Sherwood Foresters, aged 39 years. Died for England's glory. – His sorrowing wife, mother, child.” Above is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918