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3/7347 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Harry Barber was born in Haverhill around 1881, one of seven children of Walter and Harriett Barber. His father was employed as a silk weaver and his mother a housekeeper. In 1891 the family was living at Norway Cottage, Queens Road, Sudbury, they later moved to Newmans Road and then to 63 Melford Road. Harry attended St. Gregory and St. Peter’s School.
At the age of 17 Harry was employed as a whitesmith apprentice. He enlisted in Bury St. Edmunds and first served in France on 15 September 1914. Harry would have been sent out to replace the heavy casualties suffered by the battalion at Le Cateau at the end of August 1914.
During the winter of 1914/1915 the battalion was in Belgium and saw action near Ypres at Bellewaarde and Hooge. In February 1916 the battalion had intensive training with the 3rd Division for a frontal assault to recapture ‘The Bluff’. This was a mound alongside the Ypres-Comines Canal created when the canal was excavated. Whoever held this mound had the advantage of observation over the battlefield.
The weather was extremely cold and snowfalls delayed the plans until 1 March when the battalion was part of the leading infantry when the attack was launched at 4.15am. The Division recaptured the Bluff and other objectives but suffered 1,622 British casualties.
It is quite probable that Harry was one of those casualties and was taken to the Duchess of Westminster’s Hospital (No 1 BRCS) which was located at Le Touquet-Paris Plage, next to where the cemetery is today.
Harry died of wounds on 11 March 1916 and lies buried in Le Touquet-Paris Plage Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in October 2011. He is also remembered on the Trinity Congregational Church Memorial which was moved to the United Reformed Church, School Street when Trinity closed. The United Reformed Church closed in 2017 and it is proposed that the memorials from both churches will be relocated to the Sudbury Cemetery Chapel.
Harry was awarded the 1914 Star and Clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The clasp "5TH AUG - 22ND NOV 1914" was awarded with the 1914 Star for any soldier who came under enemy fire or within range of enemy mobile artillery in France or Belgium between those dates. This was to differentiate between those who were also serving in France or Belgium but behind the lines. It was recorded in the original Roll of Honour that Harry had been ‘Mentioned in Despatches’.
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