#20649 Lance Corporal Henry Hardwidge
15TH WELSH REGIMENT
BACK AT MAMETZ WOOD, WHERE Fred Emery had been killed on his arrival, the spot was becoming a nightmare for the Welsh Division. In the days following Emery’s death, the men had tested the enemy’s resistance and grown somewhat accustomed to the area. Like Trônes Wood, Mametz was a daunting prospect. There were rides within, but such was the tangle of hawthorn and briar, and the mess of oak, beech and birch ripped down by vicious bombardments that any path was near impossible to spot.
The Welshmen had begun their task with small, haphazard attacks on 7th July. Two separate attempts made by Cardiff and Gwent men failed owing to heavy machine-gun fire and they could not even reach the wood. Troops fared no better on the 8th. Unimpressed by the lack of progress, Haig swept aside the division’s commanding officer and replaced him on 9th July as it was decided to attack again the following day. This time there were to be no small efforts to hack away at this objective. On 10th July the full force of the Welsh Division would be applied to the task.
Included among them were two brothers from the town of Ferndale, near Pontypridd, where the first mine had been sunk in 1857. Serving in the 15th Welsh Regiment, 24-year-old Henry Hardwidge and his brother Tom, 34, were miners, living just a few hundred feet apart in the middle of town when they enlisted together in 1914. The two waited as the big thrust on Mametz Wood began at 4:15am on 10th July. Two battalions swept inside, clearing the middle of the wood quickly; but a third was held up and so the 15th Welsh was called upon to go and support the attack.
The Welshmen had a foothold in the wood, but the situation was far from secure and far from clear. Henry and Tom were able to get inside without much opposition, aside from the occasional sniper, and the battalion even managed to round up a few prisoners as they went searching for the 13th Welsh. Eventually, with three battalions together in the confusion, including theirs, the brothers helped to form a line in the southern part of the wood. Indecisive fighting took place until 2:30pm. At one point it looked as though the enemy was massing for a counter-attack. At another, a German machine gun got in the rear of one of the companies and began cutting men down, wiping out almost two platoons. Snipers were everywhere, gradually eroding the numbers of those attempting to navigate the confusion or consolidate their positions throughout numerous advances and retirements.
The confused troops were ordered forward again to make their way through the chaos via one of the rides to consolidate a position gained. There was so much traffic on it that it was impossible for the Hardwidge brothers to negotiate the path. As men tripped over each other, machine-gun fire opened up on the tangle of wrecked trees. For ten minutes all was mayhem. The 15th Welsh were scattered across Mametz Wood, unsure of their exact positions as night set in.
The 11th July began with redeployment of the Welsh resources that remained available after the previous day’s fighting. Henry and Tom’s battalion was sent forward to make a further advance on the north-west end of the wood in mid-afternoon. ‘Owing to own artillery barrage falling short and very thick undergrowth,’ progress was incredibly slow and the starting point was not reached until 4pm. After another delay waiting for the neighbouring battalion to get into position, the attack finally went forward hours late. Tom Hardwidge was hit by a sniper’s bullet. Henry ran to him and was giving him water when he too was shot. The brothers died in each other’s arms.
Henry left behind a wife, Jennie, and daughter, Edna aged 3. Tom’s widow, Annie, was left to raise their three children alone; Mary Ann, Lilian and Phoebe. On the anniversary of their deaths a touching poem was posted in the local newspaper for Henry and reflected the pain of their ends having occurred so far from home:
Your last faint whispers I should like to have heard,
And to breathe in your ear just one loving word
Only those who have suffered are able to tell
The pain of the heart in not saying farewell.
Henry (left) and Tom (right) Hardwidge with their wives and some of their children at home in Wales. (Private collection)
The brothers’ headstones, side by side at Flatiron Copse Cemetery. (Andrew Holmes)
One of their officers wrote to the two widows:
I had known them for nearly twelve months, for they were in my platoon. More cheerful, willing and capable soldiers I do not think it is possible to find, and their presence is greatly missed by everyone in the platoon and by myself.
Henry and Thomas Hardwidge were originally interred in the south-east section of Mametz Wood. They were later exhumed as the wood was cleared in 1919 and are now buried side by side at Flatiron Copse Cemetery, plots VIII.F.5 & VIII. F.6. Their brother, David, was killed on Christmas Day 1916 while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the regiment. His body, if recovered, was never identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier & Face 7a/10a.