Herbert Harold Plant

A Rifleman with the 16th Battalion, Herbert died on 2nd of June 1916 at the age of 19.

Herbert was born at Kirkley on 30 March 1897, a son of Edward and Harriet Plant. He was baptised at Saint Peter’s Church, Kirkley, on 30 April 1897, and his family lived at 25 Lawson Road, and this would be Herbert’s home for the rest of his life. In 1911 Herbert worked as an office boy at an electricians. 

Herbert was working as a fitter working for J.W. Brooke, Engineers, Lowestoft, when he volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft on 25 September 1914. He joined his unit, the 16th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps, at Denham, on 5 October 1915. He arrived in France, with the Battalion, on 16 November 1915 and served with C Company. 

On 9 May 1916 the Battalion were in positions at Auchy Left. The Battalion’s War Diary states that on 13 May the sector was very quiet, but one Lance Sergeant and one Rifleman were wounded. On that day Herbert received multiple shrapnel wounds to his legs, arms and back and he was admitted to 19 Field Ambulance. On 16 May he was transferred to the West Riding Casualty Clearing Station and then to the 2nd Stationary Hospital at Abbeville, where he died on 25 September.