Henry Deakin
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Henry Deakin was born in 1884 the son of Ephraim a coal miner and Emma Deakin née Ward of 17 Hazel Grove Hucknall. Ephraim was born in 1851 at Staveley, Emma Ward was born in 1858 at Whittington, Derbyshire, married on 14th March 1874 at the parish church at Staveley they went on to have 22 children, sadly 10 were to die in infancy or early childhood. Henry married Mabel Heighton in 1909 their marriage was recorded in the Southwell Registration district. In 1911 they lived at Bullivant's Yard, Town Street, Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire and are shown as Henry 27 yrs a mining road layer, he is living with his wife Mabel 22 yrs In 1911 his parents and siblings are living at 17 Florence Street, Hucknall and are shown as Ephraim 60 yrs a coal miner, he is living with his wife Emma 57 yrs and their children, Martha 30 yrs no occupation listed, Emma 21 yrs no occupation listed, Herbert 16 yrs a coal miner, Bertha 14 yrs a blouse maker and Nellie 9 yrs a scholar, Ephraim states on the census that he has been married 37 yrs and has had 22 children, 10 of whom had died. Henry's widow Mabel married Fred Collinson in 1918 and they lived at Marr Doncaster. They had two children, Nancy (1919) and John (1921).
Private Harry Deakin served with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards. He died on 4th July 1915 of wounds received in action on 12th November 1914 and is buried in Levallois-Perret Communal Cemetery, Paris.
A tribute was paid to him by the British Consult-General in Paris, Walter Risley Hearn, published locally on 10th July 1915 in the Nottingham Evening Post :- “BRAVE HUCKNALL SOLDIER. “BRITISH CONSUL’S TRIBUTE TO HIS WORTH. “CIVIC FUNERAL IN FRANCE. “Mr. Walter R. Hearn, British Consul-General, Paris, writes as follows under date July 7th: “I regret to inform you that there passed in the Hertford British Hospital in Paris, on Sunday, the 4th July, [1915] one of the finest and bravest Nottinghamshire men it has been my fortune to meet. “Henry Deakin was born at Hucknall Torkard in April, 1884, the son of Ephraim and Emma Deakin. From the age of 13 to 20 he worked in a coalmine at Hucknall. but when he married at the age of 24, Mabel Heighton, of Edingley, they went and lived at Edwinstowe. At 21 he enlisted in the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, in which he served three years. He later joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, and with them came to France in the Expeditionary Force, and they formed part of the Fourth Guards’ Brigade, which was engaged in the first battle of Ypres. Henry Deakin was wounded there on November 12th, 1914, by shrapnel in the base of the spine, and was brought to the British Red Cross Hospital in Paris, where he arrived on November 16th, and, paralysed in his lower extremities, remained there until that hospital closed. On February 3rd, 1915, he was moved to the Hertford British Hospital, where he remained till he passed away. “His case was hopeless from the first, and in March his wife came out to him and passed her in making him comfortable and happy for the four months that he lingered on after she arrived at the hospital. “Deakin endeared himself to everyone in the hospital, and to all who visited him there. Helplessly bedridden, and often suffering intense pain and discomfort, he was always cheerful, and had a kindly word for everyone, and a ready wit, especially when it concerned a too pitying or sanctimonious visitor. “He was as brave in his bed as he had been in the trenches, and bore his cross with exemplary patience and unselfishness, and during the six months I knew Henry Deakin I felt that it was a privilege as well as a pleasure to visit him, and that he could not but exercise a good influence on those who came in contact with him. “He was buried this morning, July 7th, in the plot of the cemetery Levallois-Perret given by the municipality for British soldiers. The funeral was attended by the Mayor, the chief of the veteran soldiers, the doctors and nurses of the Hertford British Hospital, by myself, and many of those had known him well during his last months here. “The Rev. Anstruther Cardew officiated, and the Mayor of Levallois-Perret and the chief of the veteran soldiers made patriotic and friendly addresses at the grave side. The coffin was covered with the Union Jack and many flowers, and a contingent of British and French soldiers acted as escort and bearers.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918
