Harold Sidney Street. Died 23 July 1916
Harold was born in 1898 to father Enoch and mother Jane in Blewbury, Berkshire. He was the second born and had a brother, William. By the age of 13 he was still at school in 1911 and his father was a brewer at this time. His parents had moved away from Blewbury and were now living at 6 Wellington Place, Seaford Road, Wokingham.
Harold joined the Royal Berks volunteers, the 1/4th Battalion very early in the war, around August 1914 and was soon on his way to France. By 1916, Harold faced the Somme and it was to prove his demise during the attack on Pozieres. The attack on the 23rd was savage, with hand to hand combat and the Germans killing wounded soldiers as they lay on the ground. Harold was just 18 years old. Over 20 soldiers too returned suffering from shell shock. To read more on this terrible episode, John Chapman offers us the following contribution: http://www.purley.eu/H142P/P233-Somme.pdf
Name: STREET, HAROLD SIDNEY
Initials: H S
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment
Unit Text: 1st/4th Bn.
Age: 18
Date of Death: 23/07/1916
Service No: 2635
Additional information: Son of Enoch Gad Street and Jane Street, of 35, Wescott Rd., Wokingham, Berks.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 11 D.
Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Location Information: The Thiepval Memorial will be found on the D73, next to the village of Thiepval, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at the memorial on 1 July.
Historical Information: On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter. In the spring of 1917, the German forces fell back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line, and there were no further significant engagements in the Somme sector until the Germans mounted their major offensive in March 1918. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.
6 Wellington Place, Seaford Road, Wokingham. (1911)
27 Wescott Road, Wokingham (1916)
35 Wescott Road, Wokingham (Parents circa 1920)
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