Harry Rumsey

Service number: 2055 | Rank: Private | Regiment: Norfolk Regiment

Killed in action, August 14, 1915, in Gallipoli.  Aged 18.

Remembered at HELLES MEMORIAL, Turkey.

Brother of Mr R. E. Rumsey, Brandon, Suffolk.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HARRY …

Harry was another Brandon lad who left school and went to work at the same place as his father. For Harry this meant working at George Wood’s saw mill. This was until Harry, aged 17, went off and enlisted as a Territorial in the 1/4th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, on 31st March 1914. It seems the Brandon lads were on the short side and Harry was one of the shortest, his Medical Report states him as being 5’ 3½”.

Harry’s destiny lay in Turkey. On 29th July 1915, at Liverpool docks, he and his battalion embarked on a troopship, the H.M.T. Aquitania, and just after midnight of 9th August they reached the Greek island of Lemnos. From here they transferred to another troopship that took them to Suvla Bay, on the coast of Gallipoli. It was at this time that Harry wrote his last letter to his mother, dated 11th August, stating he was on board a ship travelling to the Dardanelles in Turkey. On that same ship was Harry’s older brother, Robert, who was also serving in Harry’s battalion. The men disembarked with the sound of battle around them and were immediately set to work unloading ammunition from the ships before marching toward the reserve trenches. Upon reaching these trenches they prepared themselves for an attack on the Turkish positions. There was no time to be lost because the main British contingent had landed just a week before and the battle was not going to plan, and they had to break out from the beach area. However the enemy began shelling the base camp on the 14th August and it seems during this shelling Harry, aged 18, was killed. His body was never found.