Henry Vincent

Private - Service No. 29354 - Norfolk Regiment

Lance Corporal - Service No. 41334 - 11th Battalion Essex Regiment

Henry Vincent, the son of John Henry Vincent and his wife Emma (Prettyman), was born on 11th January 1897 in Swardeston. John Henry Vincent was born and raised in Sprowston, Norwich, and left school to become a gardener like his father, Henry (Snr). In the late 1890s he even spent some time in the village of Little Bredy in Dorset as one of several gardeners working on the Bridehead Estate. Emma Prettyman was born in Oulton, Suffolk and went into domestic service when she left school initially working in the area where she had been brought up but, by 1890 working for John Henry Gurney at Keswick New Hall as a housemaid. John Vincent and Emma married at Swardeston in 1893 and settled, with John's parents in a cottage by the common where John listed himself as "farmer & market gardener". Here the couple had two daughters in addition to Henry, Edith (1894) and Lilian (1901).

Some time around 1916 Henry joined the Norfolk Regiment and some time later transferred to the 11th Battalion Essex Regiment. At some stage in his time with the Essex Rgt he was promoted to lance corporal. On 29th April 1918 he was on a list of wounded soldiers and is shown as being "discharged to base depot Calais" but the document is torn and incomplete. We do know that about that time his battalion were involved in the second battle of Kemmel Ridge (26-27th April) and it is likely this is where Henry was wounded. On 28th May 1918 Henry Vincent died from his wounds. Henry Vincent is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.

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