Henry George Poole was born in the summer of 1892 in Creech St Michael, Somerset. The older of two children, his parents were carpenter Benedict Poole, and his wife, Louisa.

When he finished his schooling, Henry was apprenticed to a carpenter, but also devoted time to the village’s Friendly Society.

With war on the horizon, Henry was drawn to play his part and serve his country. He enlisted early in the conflict and, while full details of his military career are lost to time, documents confirm that he was assigned to the 8th (Reserve) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment.

It is unclear whether Private Poole served any time overseas but his battalion moved between Trowbridge in Wiltshire, to Weymouth and Wareham in Dorset. Indeed, by the end of 1915, Henry was based at Bovington Camp, to the west of Wareham. He was here when he fell ill, and when, on 28th November 1915, he passed away from an undisclosed condition in the camp hospital. He was just 23 years of age.

Henry George Poole was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Michael’s Church in the village of his birth.

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A local newspaper reported on Henry’s funeral, but the article underlines how facts were gotten wrong then, as they are sometimes now. The Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser reported that Henry was 22, instead of 23, that he had ‘sisters’, when he only had one, and gave his father’s name as Benjamin, not Benedict.

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