Private BRIAN VAREY 11/283, 11th East Yorkshire Regiment.
Born Hull in 1890, Brian was the youngest of seven children to Harry and Annie Varey of 9 Walters Terrace, Providence Row, Beverley Road, Hull. He worked for Messrs, Holmes & Moore, Terry Street, Upholsterers. He enlisted at City Hall on 10th September 1914 joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. After serving in Egypt over Christmas 1915, the Pals docked in Marseilles on 7th March 1916 and headed north for the trenches of the Western Front. In August Brian was charged with “neglect to the prejudice of good order and military discipline” and sentenced to two years Hard Labour by a Military Court. Ironically, if he’d served that sentence he would not have been in the front line when the battalion attacked Serre in the last desperate days of the Somme campaign. The sentence was reduced to three months and Brian Varey was killed in action on 13th November 1916. He was buried at Euston Road Cemetery; he was 25 years old. His effects were returned home: disc, letters, cards, photos, cigarettes, purse, three coins, wallet, rosary, Prayer Book and razor blades- not much in the place of a son.
The Varey family seem to have suffered more than most. The Hull Daily Mail 29/11/1916 records that Ann Varey lost two sons both serving with the East Yorkshire Regiment, with another severely wounded. She also lost two more sons before the outbreak of WW1. It’s hard to imagination the grief Harry and Ann Varey must have felt. Brian and his brother George Horace both attended Clifton Street Primary school and are recorded on the Roll of Honour which is hung in the school.
Brain Varey’s death is reported in the Hull Daily Mail, on 27/11/1916; 13/11/1917; 29/11/1916. His Fiancee, Eliza Richardson, lived at 23 Barnsley Street, Hull
