Harry Newton Dean

Private Harry Newton Dean, served with the 1/4th Battalion Essex Regiment, formerly Army Service Corps, he was killed in action on 3rd November 1917. He is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.

Article published 14th June 1918 in the Mansfield Reporter and Sutton Times :- “THE LATE PTE. HARRY DEAN. “More details are now to hand respecting the death of Pte. Harry Dean, partner in the firm of Messrs. Dean Bros., Westgate, which occurred close to Gaza, last November. “A chaplain, writing to Mrs. Dean, says:— “The attack on the West side of Gaza by the infantry lasted five days, and then the Turks retired. The first day our battalion was in reserve. On the second day, November 3rd, the 1-4th Essex attacked before dawn, the Turks in a position called the Belah trench, which had not been taken the day before. Our men got into the trench but were bombed out of it, and had to retire. Our losses were very heavy in the battalion, your husband lost his life through this attack. He was buried near where he fell, in the large Essex cemetery, between Belah Trench and Gun Hill, on the West side of Gaza, on the sand hills.” “From another letter written by a Mansfield soldier to a relative of Mrs. Dean, it appears that after he heard of Private Dean's death he sought out his grave, photographed it, and sent a print to England. “The writer says:— “Our last camp was only two or three miles from where he lies buried, and I have passed within a mile of it almost every day when we were there. I rode over this morning with the intention of fixing a cross, but was gratified to find that the graves had been properly cared for, each having it[s] own cross with the name thereon, and all the graves are enclosed with barbed wire and wire netting. He is buried with 38 of the officers and men of his battalion, side by side, at a spot about midway between Gaza and the sea.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918