Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HENRY WOGDEN 12/112. Born in April 1879, Henry was the son of Jane Wogden. An Engine Cleaner by trade he married Alice Wharf at St. Augustine’s in Hull on 4th December 1904 and the couple lived at 8 Alexandra Avenue with their two children James and Harriet. He enlisted at City Hall on 14th September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. Henry was killed in action on the Somme on 13th November 1916 and his body never recovered. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 37 years old.
Private Pearson was a runner that day:
“I was given a message to take back to HQ in the reserve line and my journey took me along a long communication trench….which before the morning attack was six foot deep, well sandbagged and strengthened- it had to be because Jerry took a particular dislike to it from its first appearance and shelled it regularly- its walls were now flattened and the trench was now lined with corpes, one on top of another, dead and wounded, some just naked bodies stripped bare by the terrible concussion of the German shells……as I stood there transfixed, enemy machine gunners spotted me and so fierce was their fire that I had to drop down among those bodies and continue my journey on my stomach.”
