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Pte. Henry Gambles
British Army 7th Btn, C Company Border Regiment
from:1 Catherine Terrace, Birkett Bank, Wigan
(d.15th Feb 1916)
Henry Gambles was born on 6th of September 1887. He was a miner working at Giants Hall Colliery, Standish, Wigan.
He enlisted into the Border Regiment on 25th of March 1915. He was 27 years old, but said he was 24. His next of kin was listed as his father, Robert Gambles of Swinley Hall Farm, Wigan. However, he asked for his personal effects, if found, to be forwarded to Miss Florence Neary of 13 Hardybutts, Wigan.
The 7th Borders left Winchester for Boulogne in July 1915 and served in France and Flanders, in the trenches and in training.
Henry was killed at The Bluff in the south of the Ypres Salient Belgium during the night of 14th/15th February 1916. We believe he was a Bomber, a soldier trained to throw Mills Bombs (hand grenades). He and colleagues were trying to force the enemy out of some British trenches that the Germans had recently occupied. We believe that he was buried in a marked grave, but that this grave was destroyed later in the war by shelling.
He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to those with no known grave. His name is also, with other 7th Border Regiment members, on the Wigan War Memorial. There is a bronze plaque naming those employees of Giants Hall Colliery killed in the Great War. This was originally erected at the colliery, but when it was closed, the plaque was moved to its current location in the lynch gate of St Wilfred's Parish Church Standish.
