Joseph Healey

Memorial: South Gloucestershire war dead not on a local memorial

Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Lance Corporal 29796

Parents: Thomas and Sarah Grace Healey

Home address: 47 Great George Street, St. Judes, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Sorter

Date of birth: 23/04/1886

Place of birth: Kingswood, Bristol

Date of death: 19/06/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site. Commemorated at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Not commemorated on a local memorial.

Age: 31

Further information:

Joseph was born in Kingswood, the son of a mason and the second youngest child of five with two older sisters, an older and a younger brother. In 1901 shortly after leaving school he worked as a labourer in the cocoa factory.

Joseph enlisted as a private and in July 1915 his battalion (the 8th, Glosters) mobilised to France where Joseph was promoted to Lance Corporal and where the battalion fought in various actions on the Western Front including the Battle of the Loos, the Battles of the Somme and the Battle of Messines (7-14 June 1917). Joseph was killed in action five days after the Battle of Messines, when his battalion were not engaged in any specific action. It is therefore possible that he was one of the 300 deaths from trench warfare that occurred every day throughout the war. Joseph’s body was never found and the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, where he is remembered, bears the names of more than 54,000 soldiers who died in Belgium and who have no known grave.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
Some information supplied by Kingswood Heritage Museum