HARRY PAGE

Private, 15230, 7th The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Killed in Action, Ferrar's Wood, France, 23 March 1918, aged 24
Buried in Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France
Commonwealth War Graves Commission reference: IWGC 8.4.22
 

Cap bage of The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
(Click to enlarge)
(Source: Wikipedia)

Private Harry Page was born in the summer of 1893 at Meadowlands, Forest Row, the son of John and Charlotte Page. John (1868-1951) was born in East Grinstead, while Charlotte, née Willie, was born in Hartfield in 1868.

In the 1901 census Harry is recorded as living at Shepherds Well (previously Highgate) with father John aged 37 (a bricklayer's labourer), mother Charlotte,aged 32, and brothers William, 15, and George, 12. William was a 'carter's boy at a farm'. In 1911 Harry was recorded as living in Hartfield Road with his father, 48, and mother, 42, described as a laundry woman. Also present was George. At that time Harry, 17, was listed as a builder's labourer.

Attestation papers show that Harry volunteered at East Grinstead to join the 1st Battalion, 4th Royal Sussex Regiment, on 26 August 1914. On enlisting he gave his age as 21 and 1 month. He was passed medically fit. He was single, 5 feet six inches tall with fair hair. On 16 January 1915 he was punished under Part 2 Orders to 21 days detention at Lewes Detention Barracks for 'desertion'. He served some of this time but was in Newhaven Hospital from 20-24 January suffering from contagious scabies. In February 1915 he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. On 4 September 1915 he was posted to a Provisional Territorial Force Battalion and on 29 April 1916 to a second Provisional Battalion. He served on the Home Front until 19 June 1916 when he was transferred to General Service in accordance with the Military Service Act of 1916.

Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension
(Click to enlarge)
(Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

Harry was serving with the 7th Service Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) when he was killed in action at Ferrar's Wood in France on 23 March 1918. He was aged 23. He is buried in the British Extension of Chauny Communal Cemetery in Aisne, France (Commonwealth War Graves Commission, reference IWGC 8.4.22). The British extension was formed after the Armistice in 1918 specifically to hold remains collected from battlefields on the Aisne and to centralise remains from nearby smaller cemeteries. Some of the headstones therefore say 'believed to be' and some say 'buried near this spot'.

The entry in the Book of Remembrance held in Holy Trinity Church, Forest Row was signed by Daisy Page (widow) of Rosemary Lane, Haddenham, Berkshire. Harry had married Daisy in 1917 at Steyning, Sussex. She was later Daisy Belcher, of 23 Australia Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Kevin Tillett

28 April 2014
Updated 30 September 2019