PADBURY Henry

Great Western Railway Roll of Honour:
Corporal Henry Padbury, Great Western Railway, Packer, Engineering Department, Honeybourne.
Death reported in the Great Western Railway staff magazine reference 1917/10/201. Photo in the Great Western Railway staff magazine reference 1917/12/244.

The following information is courtesy of the researcher of the casualties on the Blockley War Memorials:
Henry Padbury was born in Aston Magna, Blockley, in 1887.  His father, a labourer, died in 1890, leaving a widow Mary Ann with six children, of which Henry was the youngest.  Henry was at home in 1891 and 1901, working as a ploughboy on the latter date.  In 1909 he married Lucy Ann Keyte, a local girl though the marriage was registered at King’s Norton, Worcestershire, near Birmingham.  They may have returned to Aston Magna, for the birth of their daughter Lilian was registered at Shipston in 1910 and she was baptised in Aston Magna the same year.  The following year they were living at Cow Honeybourne, near Evesham in Worcestershire, Henry working as a packer for a railway company.

Henry served in the Gloucestershire Regiment in the Great War, reaching the rank of corporal.  He enlisted at Campden and was in the 13th battalion, which was formed at Malvern in December 1914 and which deployed to France in March 1916.  His service number is consistent with registration in 1915, which would be typical for a married man under the conscription laws, for call-up in mid-1916.  His service records have not survived, but peripheral documents have.  He lies in Dozinghem Military Cemetery, west of Ypres in Flanders. This cemetery was used by 4, 47 and 61 Casualty Clearing Stations.  He is remembered on the war memorials at Blockley and Honeybourne, where his wife presumably continued to live after his death.

From the medals card and Gloucestershire Regiment medals roll:
Henry Padbury, 13 Battalion, corporal, 17818. Awarded the Victory Medal and British War Medal.

From Gloucester Regiment Museum records:
Henry Padbury, born Aston Magna, enlisted Campden
13 Battalion, corporal, 17818, died of wounds, Belgium, grave B00016

From Soldiers’ Effects:
Henry Padbury, 13/Gloucs, 17818, corporal, died of wounds Belgium, 17 pounds 3s 11d plus 12 pounds war gratuity to widow Lucy A, sole legatee.