Henry Thomas Drew 1892 – 1917
Henry was born in Shepherdswell on 4th December 1892 and was baptised in St Andrew’s on 2nd April 1893. His father, George Thomas, was the landlord of the Bell Inn and lived above the pub with his wife Caroline (née Cornwall) and some of Henry’s numerous siblings as his parents had 12 children in total.
Records show that he attended the village school from September 1896.
The family remained at The Bell for both the 1901 and 1911 Census, by which time Henry was working as a ‘domestic groom’. He subsequently moved to Blandford in Dorset.
His father transferred the licence of The Bell to Mr W Hopton in early 1915 and moved to Glenfield Road in Dover.
On 12th July 1916, Henry married Rose Lawrence at St Martin of Tours in Guston. His parish was given as Blandford and his job, which is difficult to make out in the marriage record appears to say that he was an army waiter.
It is not known when Henry enlisted, however he transferred from the Worcestershire Regiment as a private with the service no. 26807, to the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, service no. 32826. He died of wounds in the 1st General Australian Hospital in Rouen in France on 14th Mar 1917 at the age of 24. He is buried in the St Sever Cemetery Extension in Rouen.
He had been married for less than a year, and his mother died less than two months after Henry’s death.