On this day in 1918, Henry ‘Harry’ Boundy (1877-1918) died from wounds in France. He was 41.
Buried at Serre Road Cemetery No 2 on the Somme, he had been serving in the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
He is remembered on the Rackenford War Memorials.
Harry’s nephew, Frederick ‘Fred’ Boundy (1894-1975) had a dramatic return home after the Great War after being held as a prisoner of war in Germany.
Fred went missing in action on April 9, 1918. It was not until June that year that his family learned he was an ‘unwounded’ prisoner of war in Germany.
He did not return home until January 1919 – two months after the war had ended.
The Western Times reported that his safe release was a ‘pleasant surprise to the family who had almost given up on him’.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Fred Boundy was a brother-in-law of Samuel Roberts (1899-1938) who married Fred’s sister, Ada Evelyn Boundy (1901-1994) on November 8, 1922 in Cruwys Morchard. Samuel was one of 30 grandsons of John Roberts (1829-1919), my great-great grandfather, who served in the Great War.
Harry, born in Rackenford on July 14, 1877, was the son of Fred’s grandparents James Boundy (1843-1922) and Sarah Crook (1842-1914).
Picture below
How Harry is remembered on Rackenford War Memorial, on the outskirts of the village.
