Henry Gamble, known as Harry, was born in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire on Thursday, 29th March 1894 the third and youngest son born to Frederick Gamble and Emma Collier. Harry had four siblings who were: Robert William (known as William), Frederick, Annie and Hilda. His sister Annie died in 1892 aged one and his brother William also fought in the Great War. William was killed six months before Harry in March 1916 and his biography also appears in this book.

The Gamble family lived at 57 Horsecroft Road in Boxmoor when Harry was born, and his father Frederick was a labourer on the railways. Frederick was from Welham in Leicestershire and had come south to Boxmoor with his job in about 1886. He subsequently met a local girl, Emma Collier, and they were married in 1889 in Boxmoor.

Harry started his education at Boxmoor JMI school on the 20th February 1901 and completed Standards I and II before he left in March 1907 to start work as a ‘Caddy’ on a golf course. He worked at Boxmoor Golf Links in Box Lane which had been founded in 1890 on common land leased from the Boxmoor Trust.

The family was still living at 57 Horsecroft Road in 1911 and Harry, aged seventeen, had moved jobs to work as a ‘Wood Sawyer’s Assistant’ at G.B. Kent & Sons, the brush makers in Apsley. Shortly before the outbreak of war, Harry moved to a new job with John Dickinson & Co Limited at Apsley Mills and it was from here that he left to enlist.

  

Harry attested at Watford in September 1914 joining the 8th (Service) Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment and initially went to the Regimental HQ at Bedford to be mobilised. Other than a brief spell in Brighton, most of his training was undertaken in Surrey, with almost seven months being spent in the sprawling New Army training area around Woking.

Whilst Harry was training at Woking, his mother Emma died aged 48. She was buried at Heath Lane Cemetery in Hemel Hempstead on the 11th May 1915.

Finally, the increasingly restless men of the 'Hungry 8th', as the Battalion was nicknamed, received orders to mobilise and prepared to ship out.

At 11pm on the 28th August 1915, the Battalion boarded the troop trains at Chobham Station and left for Dover. After transferring straight onto troop ships, it arrived at Boulogne early on the 30th August 1915.

In 1915 Harry fought in and survived the Battle of Loos and he was in the trenches at Wieltje near Ypres, on 19th December when the Germans first used phosphene gas against the British. They released 88 tons of the gas from cylinders causing 1069 casualties and 69 deaths. Harry also survived this action.

The 8th Bedfordshires were in Belgium for most of 1916 until moving to France to take part in the Battle of the Somme in early September. On the 15th of the month, Harry took part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on a day which proved costly for the Battalion.

The casualties incurred where high during the battle and Harry was one of the men listed as missing following the first day of action. He was subsequently presumed dead and officially recorded as killed in action on Friday, 15th September 1916.

He is commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited war memorial in Apsley.

Harry is Remembered with Honour in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave VII.E.2.

He was 22 years old when he died

Harry was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.