The early life of Henry George Preece is a challenge to piece together.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his father’s name as Edwin Preece, and suggest that the was the landlord of the George Hotel in Milverton.

The Army Register of Soldier’s Effects give the sole beneficiary of Henry’s estate as his sister Bessie.

The census record of 1911 appears to link the three members of the family, but give only a tenuous connection to Somerset. Edwin was a Coachman from Nunney, but the family – including Edwin’s wife Elizabeth, and two children, Henry and Bessie – were all living in Bayford, Hertfordshire, where the siblings had been born in 1900 and 1902 respectively.

It seems likely that the Preece family moved to Somerset not long after the census was taken, and this is potentially when Edwin took up his new role in Milverton.

War broke out in 1914, and Henry stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. Full service details are lost to time, but Private Preece had joined up by April 1918.

Henry’s trail goes cold again at this point. He was admitted to a military hospital in Chatham, Kent, in the autumn1918, although the reason for this is unclear. He passed away there on 29th October: he was just 19 years of age.

The body of Henry George Preece was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Michael’s Church in Milverton.

---