Henry Goldsmith Balls

A Lance Corporal with the 11th Battalion, Henry died on 9th of April 1917 aged 19. 

Henry was born at Lowestoft on 27 July 1897, a son of Henry Goldsmith Balls and Elizabeth Balls. In 1901 his family lived at 21 Alma Road, Lowestoft, and this was still their address in 1911 when Henry worked as a hairdresser's assistant, possibly working with his brother Robert. 

Henry attended Hervey Street School until 1 February 1905 when he became a pupil at Saint John's School, Lowestoft. 

Henry enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, number 1596, and served with the 6th Battalion (Cyclists) before being posted to the 11th Battalion in France. 

Colonel Murphy’s ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’ has the following account of the 11th Battalion’s attack at Arras on 9 April 1917:

On April 8th the 11th Battalion moved into its assembly positions half a mile south-east of Roclincourt. The next morning at half-past five, the guns began to roar, and the battalion, six hundred strong with twenty officers, under Lieut.-Colonel Kendrick, advanced to the attack on the first German system of trenches. The progress of the 11th Suffolk Regiment – one of the two leading battalions of the 101st Brigade – was checked but not delayed by the hostile machine-gun fire, and within the allotted time the first goal was reached, “A” Company reporting the Black Line captured without loss. Shortly after eight o’clock battalion headquarters moved forward to the German second line, where they established themselves in a dug-out, five of the battalion runners and the orderly-room sergeant capturing a batch of twenty German prisoners who showed little inclination to fight. As soon as the Blue Line had been occupied the battalion set to work solidating their position and reorganising. After dark they were sent off to the assistance of the 27th Northumberland Fusiliers, but were not needed and they returned to their original positions. At one o’clock in the morning our line was heavily bombarded with gas shells.

The Battalion lost one officer and 22 men, including Henry, killed in that day. 

Henry was buried at map reference G.6.C.8.5. and in 1919 reburied at Roclincourt Valley Cemetery.

Henry's brother-in-law, Frank Bloomfield, died in an air raid in 1940.