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Private, G/11317, 7th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Horace was the eldest of the three children, all sons, of Horace and Marie Stephanie Berthe Cath. The family returned to England shortly after Horace’s birth and lived in Penge, Kent.

He was educated at Rutlish Science School, Merton, Surrey. Prior to enlisting he worked as a cashier for a Swiss watch and clock maker in London’s Hatton Garden.

He married Daisy Ethel Eastwood on 31st August 1907 and they lived in Surrey. They had four children, Horace Charles (born in 1909), Berthe Gwendoline (born in 1910), Ella Pauline (born in 1913) and Bryan Hubert (born in 1917 four months after Horace’s death).

He attested on 1st December 1915, was mobilised on 13th June 1916 and went to France on 11th October, joining his battalion in the field ten days later.

On 10th November 1916 he wrote:

…I may not say where I have been or what I have been doing but I must say that I shall not forget and in due course I hope to give you my impressions of life at the Front. For the present I must keep you cheery and let the goings on here look after themselves. In spite of everything my cheerfulness sticks to me like a good pal just as it does with practically everybody this side of the Bosch’s trenches, I am sure I should not be in the same frame of mind were I in their shoes and it is no military secret to say that they are having a very hot time. I have not seen a newspaper for a month and have no particular desire to do so, at the same time I am glad to hear that things are going well with all the Allies who are now unmistakeably "top dogs"…

Horace died on 18th November 1916, aged 36, during an attack on the German trenches near Grandcourt.