PORTMAN Horace Hedley

Private Horace Hedley Portman was born in 1897.  He served in the 10th (Service) Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.  On the 22nd October 1916 Horace along with the battalion were ordered up over the crest of the Ancre Heights to a newly captured line. The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War by Captain H.FitzM. Stacke, M.C. writes: “The captured trench was situated on the exposed slope of the Ancre Heights and was heavily bombarded throughout the next day.  No actual counter attack was attempted, but from shell fire alone the Battalion suffered severely.”  Horace was killed during the attack.  He was 19 years of age.

Horace’s brother Reginald’s daughter Joyce provided the following information:
Before the war Horace worked as a fishing swivel tackle maker.  He worked at the local fishing swivel tackle factory at 224 Mount Pleasant, Redditch, Worcestershire.  [This is confirmed in the 1911 census that states Horace was employed as a fishing swivel tackle maker.]

All of Horace’s older brothers had joined the Army during Lord Kitchener’s first enlistment campaign.  Horace followed in his older brother’s footsteps in late 1915 and enlisted at the local recruiting office.

Horace was the only member of the family to lose his life in the Great War.  Horace’s mother had been widowed when her husband George died in 1899, she was deeply affected upon receipt of the official Army form informing the family of her son’s death.

Reginald (Horace’s brother) had been deeply scared by the war.  He had been gassed and invalided out of the army on 26th August 1918.  The war was too painful to recall, however he never forgot the brother he lost and spoke fondly of Horace.  Reginald had breathing difficulties for the rest of his life and died at the age of 64 in 1956.

The following report appears in the Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch Weekly News 25th November 1916:
CRABBS CROSS SOLDIER KILLED.
Official information has been received stating that Private Horace Portman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Portman, of Crabbs Cross, has been killed in action.  Private Portman was in the Worcestershire Regiment.  Sergeant J. Carter, of the deceased soldier’s platoon, in a letter to Mrs. Portman, says that her son died a hero’s death doing his duty to King and country, and for those he loved at home.  He was a good soldier, and was liked by all his comrades.

A photograph of Private H. Portman of Crabbs Cross can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 9th December 1916, available at Worcestershire Archives.

Horace Portman has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Thiepval Memorial.