Harold Percival White
Memorial: Olveston
Regiment: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Lance Corporal 21101
Parents: Robert and Elizabeth
Home address: Olveston, Bristol
Date of birth: 1897
Place of birth: Barnstaple, Devon
Date of death: 04/04/1918
Buried/Commemorated at: Pozières Memorial (Panel 50 and 51.), near Albert, France
Further information:
The baptism of Harold took place in St. Mary’s church in Olveston on the 29th of September 1901 when he was four years old. At that time the family, comprising father Robert, a labourer cum horse carter on a farm and his mother Elizabeth, had daughters Lily and Hannah. They had arrived at Awkley from Barnstaple, where Harold had been born. There were several White families living in the parish of Olveston, and this may have been why this family of five came here from Devon
Harold volunteered for army service in November 1915 when, for reasons unknown, he was at Ealing in Middlesex, and after training was posted to the 6th Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry which was already serving in France. That Battalion saw almost continuous action in the great Somme offensive of July 1916 through to the end of the year and then, in 1917, in the third battle of Ypres; and finally in November at Gouzeaucourt and the attack on the Hindenberg Line. By this time Harold had been made up to Lance Corporal. He was then transferred to the 5th Battalion in February 1918 together with 7 officers and 194 other ranks
Life in the 5th Battalion was very much as it had been in the 6th in that it alternated between being in the front line then in the reserve trenches. By April 1918 Harold White was back in the area of the Somme to the south-west of Albert, where the Battalion was in reserve to the 41st and 43rd Brigades in a small valley behind the Bois de Gentelles. On April 2nd they marched to the Bois de Blangy in the pouring rain and bivouacked for the night in the wood. During the afternoon of the 3rd they marched to Hamelet, moving on at 8.00pm to relieve the cavalry in the front line just east of Hamel. As dawn broke a heavy German bombardment commenced and at 8.00am the Germans attacked, employing at least four waves of troops. Both of the flanks were overrun and the Battalion was forced to evacuate the position, re-forming south of Vaire sous Corbie. Eight officers and 160 other ranks were wounded, killed or missing; Harold White was Killed in Action that day and is remembered on the Pozières Memorial near Albert, France
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Forces War Records and CWGC