Major Henry Griffith Boone

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

105 years ago today Henry Charles de Bohun Boone was born in Kent. Not obviously connected with WW1, save that that was the very day that his father, Major Henry Griffith Boone, DSO, died, aged 36, having been wounded the previous day, while his unit, D Battery 211 Brigade RFA, attached to 42^nd Division, was engaged in operations at Ypres.

Major Boone obtained his commission as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the RGA in 1900, and then spent 6 years in India with a Mountain Battery, serving with the Tibet expedition in 1903-4. In 1907 he was in China studying the language, and qualified as an interpreter. In September 1914 he went to France as an RFA officer with the BEF and took part in the Retreat from Mons, and the events on the Marne and the Aisne. He was wounded in September 1914 and invalided back to the UK. De Ruvigny says that he returned to France in September 1915, participating in the engagement at Loos, and he is mentioned in the 21^st Division WD WO 95/2136/1 as taking up the position as Brigade Major RA of that Division on 27 September 1915 after the previous BMRA had been KIA. In 1916 he saw action on the Somme, following which he was invalided back to the UK in October 1916. It is not clear when he returned to the front, but the WD WO95-2649-2 for 211 Brigade RFA records that on 20 June 1917 he was posted to D Battery of that Brigade, based in the Cambrai area. He was still with that unit at Ypres when he was fatally wounded on 5 September 1917.

He had married his wife, Margaret, in 1911, and had two sons, Frederick, born in 1912, and Henry junior, who, as mentioned above, was born on the day that his father died. One wonders whether that was pure coincidence, or whether it is possible that Margaret may have learnt by telegram of her husband’s fatal wounding within less than two days, and whether that may have precipitated the birth.

The WD of 211 Brigade records that Major Boone had returned to the UK for a period of leave just a month before his death from 6 to 17 August 1917, so missed meeting his second son by less than 3 weeks.

My grandfather, Captain Norman Hall, who was a Company Signals Officer with 2/5th LF at the time, met Major Boone in 1915, at which point my grandfather says that he was with 85 Brigade, 51^st Division, so perhaps this was just before he went to the 21^st Division.  My grandfather says:

“One day I went down to Major Boon’s 4.5 inch How Battery in position near a wood on the right of the Mesnil Road, East side. He asked me to go down to advise him about his telephones, and very kindly showed me his guns – their mechanism, and also the action of shell fuses etc. – very interesting”

On a later occasion when my grandfather went to call on Major Boone, presumably again to discuss communications, he says that Major Boone did a shoot for him, and observes

“Major Boon was a very fine soldier, and an exceedingly nice man. He had fought through the Mons Retreat, Le Cateau, and the Aisne Battles”

Clearly he greatly respected Major Boone, and I regret that, when I published my grandfather’s memoir in 2020, I did not realise that Major Boone had not survived the war, principally because my grandfather had slightly misspelt his surname, so did not include him in the book’s Roll of Honour. I would therefore like to pay this tribute to him now.

When he was killed De Ruvigny records that his General wrote:

“I cannot tell you how much we all feel Major Boone’s loss. I applied for his services, and was fortunate enough to get him, though several other Generals were also asking for him. He has improved his battery out of all recognition, and men and officers swear by him. He is not only a loss to his battery and brigade and to me in this division, but to the Army, as we cannot afford to lose men like him.”

Edited 6 September , 2022 by A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy