Private Henry Thomas Hamlyn
2nd Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 1893
Place of Birth: Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: 1 July 1916 aged 23
Buried: Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme; Seafront Memorial and St. James’ Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Private Henry Thomas Hamlyn age 23.
Henry was born in West Teignmouth in 1893, eldest son of Thomas and Emma Hamlyn of Bitton Hill, Teignmouth, his father was a hardwood merchant.
His younger brothers Holroyd and Thomas were killed later in the war. He was shown on 1901 and 1911 census living with his family at 26 Bitton House, he was serving as an army private in 1911.
Henry had enlisted at Exeter with the Devonshire Special Reserve Regiment on 2 November 1910.
He later requested to enlist with the regular army and enlisting with 3rd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, service number3/6085 on 14 March 1912.
He joined the 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, service no. 9529 where they were serving in Jersey, Channel Islands, and his army form notes that he was a Wesleyan. In December 1913 he was placed under orders for service abroad in Egypt. He then gave one month’s notice to buy his discharge from the army. His father provided the amount of £18 and he was discharged on 20 January 1914 with a very good reference.
At the outbreak of war he reapplied to join the Devonshire Regiment and was serving with 2nd Battalion, service no. 14349, in France when he was posted missing following the attack at Mash Valley, Ovillers.
Henry was later confirmed as killed in action on 1 July 1916. A note on his early records shows that his father was reimbursed part of the discharge payment of £9 in September 1916.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme; Seafront Memorial and St. James’ Memorial Window,
The Hamlyn Brothers
Henry Thomas Hamlyn died in France the 1st July 1916 aged 23.
Holroyd Edward Hamlyn died in France on the 16 September 1917 aged 22.
Thomas William Hamlyn died in France on 9 April 1918 aged 18.
The Hamlyn's surviving son, Sidney Hector, served in WW1, he also served in WW2 and was on active service in North Africa in 1942 when his wife and two daughters were killed by enemy action in Teignmouth on 31 July 1942.
The 2nd Battalion of the The Devonshire Regiment
Devonshire Regiment
cap badge
In August 1914 his battalion were in Cairo, Egypt to protect the Suez Canal.
On the 1 October 1914 they returned to England where reservists added to their numbers.
They landed at Le Havre, France on 6 November 1914 as part of the 23rd Brigade in the 8th Division.
The 2nd Devons then marched to the Front.
By Earnest Brookes. National Library of Scotland License: CC BY 4.0
By mid-November 1914 they were at Messines where they served in the trenches near Neuve Chapelle.
They had 20 casualties and lost another 70 men to sickness (mostly frostbite).
“Four inches of snow on the ground and snowing up to the 22nd (November) it was nearly impossible to sleep with only one blanket.
Barn we occupied last week blown up by shell fire. Had over nine hundred sick and wounded in a week.
The men having come straight from India &c (Cairo, Eygpt) went right into the trenches, owing to the shortage of troops, the snow and intense cold was playing havoc with them, and the bulk of the frost bite cases were quite helpless with swollen feet and had to be evacuated”.
War Diary of Albert House
Sergeant-Major of the 24th Field Ambulance
Soldiers leaving a sap trench © IWM (Q 5100)
In December 1914 the 2nd Devons lost 128 men in capturing a German position known as the Moated Grange.
They remained in this area until March 1915, when they lost heavily when they attacked the German lines at Neuve Chapelle on the 10th March.
An attack on Aubers Ridge in May 1915 cost another 250 casualties.
A German machine gun crew, probably of the 18th Infantry Regiment, manning their Maxim machine gun. © IWM (Q 87923)
In April 1916, they went to the Somme to ready for the offensive.
On 1st July, the 2nd Devons and others of the 8th Division attacked Ovillers up "Mash Valley".
232 men died and 199 were wounded, many of whom fell to German machine guns.
This was when Henry Thomas Hamlyn of Teignmouth died.
