Sergeant Harry Bundy, 47384. Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Died 31 December 1916

Although the inscription on the West Grimstead War Memorial commemorates Pte Bundy, he was at the time of his death, Sergeant Bundy.   Before the First World War, Harry Bundy had joined the Regular Army and can be seen on the census of 1901 residing at Eastney Barracks in Portsmouth.   Harry was then 18 years old.

  The 1901 census shows him as a private in the Royal Marines (RMA) at Eastney Barracks in Portsmouth. Enlisting on 20 March 1901, one day after he was 18, Harry was involved in the Coastal defences at Portsmouth. Harry was soon transferred to The Royal Garrison Artillery.

According to the curator of the museum now at Eastney Barracks, there were, at that time, approximately 10 or a dozen Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers there at any one time and they looked after the coastal guns. He would have been known then as Gunner Bundy.  The photograph on the right shows an aerial view of Eastney Barracks.

By 1911 Harry Bundy had left the army and was a Police Constable living in Cambridge. In March 1911 Harry married a lady by the name of Florence Clarissa Randall and they went to live in Spennymoor, County Durham. Although born in London, Florence was from Spennymoor and her family lived in High Baff Street. At the end of his required years as a regular soldier Harry Bundy would have been classed as a reservist to be called back to the Army if needed. So it was that from Spennymoor, at the start of the Great War, Harry Bundy went to Darlington and enlisted for a second time and became a soldier once again.

Harry Bundy would have been a useful member of the armed forces, experienced as he already was. He became part of the 117^th Heavy Battery, RGA and was involved with the heavy guns in Flanders and France.

Sergeant Harry Bundy 47384 was killed in action on 31 December 1916 and his grave can be found at the Hem Farm Military Cemetery, Hem-Monacu. From the register at Hem Farm Cemetery I believe that Harry Bundy was probably buried originally in Needlewood Cemetery, Clery-sur-Somme (also called Andover Place) and reburied later at Hem Farm.

Harry Bundy had been born in West Grimstead, near Salisbury in Wiltshire in 1884. His Grandparents, Joshua and Elizabeth Bundy had arrived in West Grimstead around 1843, Joshua Bundy being a labourer at the Brickyard in Windwhistle Lane.

Joshua and Elizabeth Bundy already had a son and a daughter when they arrived in West Grimstead and they went on to have a further 9 children. Three of their sons remained in the village and continued the brickyard business.

The eldest of their sons was Mark Bundy and he married Louisa and they subsequently had 8 children. Harry was the youngest child and he was baptised in West Grimstead Church on May 22^nd 1884. When Harry Bundy was nine years old his mother died; in June 1897 his father married again. Perhaps this helped him to decide to leave home and join the army.  Harry Bundy is not listed on the either the Roll of Honour in the Chapel nor the Roll of Honour in the Church but he is remembered on the War memorial in Spennymoor, County Durham as well as the West Grimstead War Memorial.   Harry Bundy and Florence had two children, a daughter Louisa born in 1913 and a son Harry Mark Bundy born in the Autumn of 1915. Like many others, these children were to grow up not knowing their father.                   

     Pictures of Spennymoor War Memorial used by  kind permission of Paul Beel -   www.picturespennymoor.co.uk