Henry Tudor was born in Welshpool in 1865 and was the only child of Joseph and Mary Tudor. In 1871 Joseph was working as an agricultural labourer and, ten years later, as a farm bailiff. At 16 years of age Henry was working as a printer. Henry married and he and his wife Jane had a daughter and four sons – one of whom had volunteered and was in training at Eastbourne. In July 1914 Henry was prosecuted for not sending his son, Harold, to school, Harold had played truant 29 out of 40 attendances. They lived at 1 Middleton Road and later at 10 Coney Green. Henry then worked in the Cambrian Railway yards as a wagon lifter – jacking up or lifting railway wagons and coaches to change wheels. He later enlisted with the 4 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.

The 4 Bn KSLI  were on their annual training camp near Aberystwyth. On the outbreak of war the exercise was cut short and the men sent home to await further instructions. The battalion was mobilised on 4 August and was ordered to report to Cardiff, from where it moved on to Sittingbourne in Kent on 3/4 September. The men expected to be going to France, however, the battalion was paraded and an appeal was made for volunteers for service in India. Eighty five per cent of the men stepped forward. They left for India on board HMT Deseado on 28 October and arrived in Bombay on 1 December. From there they travelled by train to Calcutta and ship onwards to Rangoon arriving on 10 December 1914.

For Henry Tudor the journey seems to have all been too much, as he died two days after arriving at Rangoon on 12 December 1914. His wife, Jane, received the news five days later. No cause of death was given, he was not of a strong constitution and she surmised that he had become ill on the voyage. In fact, he had had a heart attack and collapsed and died on the parade ground in Rangoon. The KSLI Regimental History records ‘ Whilst in Rangoon, the first casualty occurred, Sergeant H Tudor of H Company, dying of heart failure shortly before Christmas’. He was buried with full military honours in Rangoon Cantonment Cemetery the next day and was re-interred in Rangoon War Cemetery in 1948.

Another account of his death was given in a letter home written by Corporal 1590 Rowland Evans ‘You know H Tudor the wagon lifter that used to be in the wagon shop. He was Sergeant over me, well he was on Parade last Monday morning at 7am and he dropped down to the ground groaned a little and was dead in five minutes and was buried with full honours before 6 in the evening, it was a sad day for us indeed but it made us careful afterwards, the heat is terrific at noon.’

Henry was 49 years of age, an old campaigner, and had served as a volunteer during the South Africa, or Boer, War and afterwards had spent 16 years in the KSLI Territorials. A fellow soldier, Corporal WE Jones of Llanymynech, said of him ‘although at times we were inclined to chaff and joke with him, it was to him everyone turned to for advice’.

He is also commemorated on the Cambrian Railway Memorial. Henry and family lived  next door to Sergeant 12258 Stanley Williams who was the first war casualty in 6 Bn KSLI, died of wounds 13 August 1915.

Acknowledgements.

References and Sources

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