LINDSEY, Horace [of Gonalston]

Gonalston war memorial

St Laurence's church

Medical officer's report on Horace Lindsey's death

Macabrely neat and detailed

Boulogne East Cemetery

Pte., Army Service Corps

Horace Lindsey was born in Melton Mowbray in 1889 so he was 25 when he volunteered in Nottingham in December 1914. Although he appears on the Gonalston war memorial (because his parents still lived there) he was actually living at 63 Woolmer Road in the Meadows area of Nottingham when he joined up. He was a baker and confectioner by trade and the army sensibly decided to keep him making bread in the Service Corps. They sent Army Form B. 64c to his former employer, Frederick Seymour, in Arkwright Street asking some interesting questions:

Please say why he left you.     Answer: To enlist

Do you believe him to be sober?        Answer: Yes

Do you believe him to be honest?      Answer: Yes

Can you give any other information as to his character? Truthful & Punctual

Give your opinion of his capabilities, stating, if applicable, whether he is a partly trained apprentice, an improver, journeyman, leading hand, chargeman, &c., &c.

Answer: Journeyman

Lindsey also took a practical bakery test at Aldershot and was rated 'a Fair Baker'.

In May 1915 he went to France and joined the 14th Field Bakery of the ASC. This was not a front line unit, but appears to have been part of No. 3 Base Supply Depot at Boulogne. He served there for 15 months before succumbing to pleurisy (a lung disease which can spread virally) in the 2nd Canadian Field Hospital. He died on 27 August 1916 and was buried two days later in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.

As well as appearing on the attractive Gonalston memorial in St Laurence's church, he is also commemorated on his parents' tombstone in Melton Mowbray.