27th August was the 99th anniversary of the death of the first Everton player to fall in the Great War (by Peter Jones The EFC Heritage Society) Harry Fitzroy Norris. Harry played for the reserves before the war and was discovered by Billy a few months back through a newspaper report of his being loaned out to Tranmere for a game against Chirk. His father Fitzroy was a director and the secretary/manager of Bolton Wanderers having played for Nottingham Forest and been a referee (who incidentally was not popular with Everton apparently). Harrys family was living in Aughton when he was killed, he was 30 years old. Harry was a corporal in the 11th (Service) Battalion of the Kings Liverpool Regiment which was a pioneer battalion; Harry and his comrades were fully trained infantry but who specialised in construction. I have the war diary for the 11th and it seems likely that Harry arrived in France on the 20th May 1915. From landing at Le Harvre the 11th were transported to Ypres and were immediately involved in construction work in the front lines under fire, first along the Ypres Canal and subsequently in the area along the Menin Road and around Zouave Wood and Sanctuary Wood. This was in the period following the Second Battle of Ypres when the Germans had first used poison gas on the western front; the front line had been pushed back towards Ypres so there was much work for the 11th Battalion to undertake. That summer was marked by British attempts to regain footholds on the low ridges that surround Ypres, including the first attack by the Liverpool Scottish on the Bellewaarde ridge on 16th June where Noel Chavasse won his Military Cross. This sector also included the infamous Hooge Chateau on the Menin Road, where the Germans held the ruins of the house and the British the ruins of the stables in a very precarious salient. It was here that the first British mine was exploded and the Germans replied with mining of their own and with the initial use of flame throwers in late July. The whole area would be well known to Harry and the 11th Kings Liverpool. On 26th August 1915 half of the 11th battalion left their billets in the infantry barracks and the prison in Ypres, probably at dusk; the rest had been hard at work constructing secure dugouts given the amount of shelling their billets were subjected to. They made their way through the ruined streets and out through the Lille Gate in the city ramparts, then up the communication trenches to the front lines. The battalion war diary is brief and to the point. It reads 26/08/1915 - Half the Battalion continued making dugouts while the remainder were digging and repairing trenches. Casualties 1 killed, 2 wounded. Harry Norris was probably one of the two wounded men and the newly released Commonwealth War Graves Commission records suggest he died of woulds the following day, 27th August, although his headstone says the 26th. The third wounded man appears to have died a day later. Harry was buried in a small graveyard near the prison. Following the war his body was moved to the northernmost of three cemeteries around the prison and this was renamed Ypres Reservoir to remove the suggestion that it was prison related. Harry is one of 2,316 men who lie there; as with all of the CWGC cemeteries it is beautifully maintained and was very peaceful when I visited Harrys grave in June.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:57:34 +0000
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