Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

For a detailed biography see Flintshire War Memorials.

The COUNTY HERALD on the 10th September 1915 reports the contents of a letter from Corporal H. Carter: "SEALAND - Lance-Corporal H. Carter, Garden City, promoted in the trenches for good work on the nights of August 10th and 11th, writes from St. Andrew’s Military Hospital, Malta, to Mr. & Mrs. Woolley, 51, High Street, Higham Ferrers, with whom he was friendly; –

“Just a line to let you know that we are still in the land of the living. Thank God for that, after what we have gone through. We went straight to the Dardanelles from Higham, and we had it rough as soon as w e landed which we did on Sunday August 8th. As soon as we landed they poured shrapnel into us, and we had casualties at once. Well, our hearts were in our mouths but we pulled ourselves together and formed up as soon as possible, but we felt a bit queer at first. We soon got used to them flying around us, and we made the best of it, but they made it too hot for us to stay there, so we had to move at once. We found the shelter of a small hill, where we rested and fed that day and night. We moved off at 3 a.m. on Monday and go as supports to the firing line. We marched just the same as Higham until the Turks spotted us, and then the fun began. We had orders to extend, which we did with all speed, and from there we had to advance four or five miles facing a murdering fire. We advanced in rushes, but our chaps were getting mowed down, but we reached the trenches about 6 p.m. You would have thought they would have given us a rest then, but from when we started to advance till Tuesday night we never had a minute’s rest. Never mind, we pulled through, and we rested the best we could for a full day. Then on Thursday we got the order to advance, which we did with a vengeance. The Turks ran like rabbits, shouting “Allah, Allah!” but we gave them Allah – about a foot of cold steel!.”


Probate CARTER, Henry Charles of 35 Dee View-road, Connah’s Quay, Flintshire a Private in the 16th Regiment King’s Royal Rifle Corps (No. C331) died on or since 15th July 1916 in France on active Military service. Probate St. Asaph 20 November to Agnes Carter widow, John Peers Carter and Hugh Jones Ferguson shipbrokers. Effects £647. 15s.

Masonic :

Lodge records at the United Grand Lodge of England show his War Service from 1914 and "Missing (reported)" in the 1917 column.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley