HENRY BEALES
4 September 1892 - 9 May 1917
At School 1900 -1903
2nd Lieut 1st attd 14th York & Lancaster Regt
Henry was born in Manchester and in 1901 was living at 28 Yarburgh Street, Alexandra Park,with father Henry, a Button Manufacturer and Button Trimming Agent, mother Fanny, elder sister Hilda and one servant. In 1903 he left School to go to Manchester Grammar School. By 1911 Henry senior had died and 18 year old Henry junior was working as a salesman in the Button manufacturing business. On the outbreak of war he was working with the firm of A Coker and Co. Ltd., Shipbrokers, Forwarding and Chartering Agents, of Liverpool and Manchester.
The Hulmeian Magazine reported that he made several attempts to enlist only to be rejected. Eventually, in March 1916, he enlisted in the Manchester Regiment from where he was transferred to a Training Reserve Battalion. Following training he received a commission in the York and Lancaster Regiment on 24th January 1917 and, as a 2nd Lieutenant, proceeded to France in March joining the 14th York & Lancaster Regiment, part of 94th Brigade 31st Division, on 27 March 1917.

bodies and bits of bodies everywhere, both British and German.
The Battalion was relieved on 9th May by the 12th Battalion, by which time almost 40 men had been killed in action or died of wounds, most of their bodies being never recovered or identified.
Unfortunately the relief on the 9th came too late for Henry, who was killed in action on that day.

Map by courtesy of the Worcestereshire Regiment website
Like so many of the others in the Battalion killed during that short period in the front line, his body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
Henry had been less than two months in France and this was probably his first taste of action.
The York & Lancaster Regiment is commemorated in Bay 8.