Today, we remember the 101st anniversary of the death of local Folkingham and Lincolnshire Regiment man Horace Little.
Horace is commemorated on the war memorial in Sempringham and buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery at Le Treport.
Horace Little was born early in 1898 in Long Sutton to William Little, an assistant teacher born Wisbech, and his wife Ada Willows of Long Sutton. They married in Long Sutton in 1897 and Horace was the first of 12 children;
Horace William Little, 1898, Long Sutton
Sydney Belmont Little, 1899, Long Sutton
Nellie Elizabeth Little, 1901, Long Sutton
Harold George Little, 1903, Long Sutton
Reginald Gregory Little, 1905, Alford
Gilbert Frank Little, 1907, Pointon
Winifred Ethel Little. 1908. Pointon
Cuthbert Little, 1909, Pointon
Dorothy Little, 1911, Pointon
Clement A Little, 1912, Pointon
Hilda N Little, 1914, Pointon
Geoffrey F Little, 1917, Pointon
The family started out life in Long Sutton where in 1901 William was working as a teacher, by 1907 they had moved to the School House in Pointon, William now being the head teacher.
In November 1915 Horace enlisted into the Lincolnshire regiment at Lincoln (No 4662). Some records indicate that at the time of his death we was posted to the 51st labour Company of the labour Corps 30292, although other records commemorate him as a private in the 1st/4th Lincolnshire Regiment under the number 201673.
His military records have not been found and were most likely destroyed in the London warehouse fire in the blitz.
The information we have discovered has been pieced together from various surviving records and so the dates and his movements during the war are largely unknown.
When he was posted from the Lincolnshire Regiment to the Labour Corps is unknown but it must have been between January 1917 and June 1917.
The Labour Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the “A1” condition needed for front line service. Many of the men of the Corps were previously wounded and were posted from their original battalions to the Labour Corps. Labour Corps units were often deployed for work within range of the enemy guns, sometimes for lengthy periods.
As we do not know the circumstances of Horace’s transfer to the Corps or any details of previous wounds then it is not possible say where on the western front he was serving prior to his transfer to the No 16 Hospital at Le Treport.
We do know that the 4th Lincolns had spent most of 1917 in the Loos area but when Horace left them for the Labour Corps is unknown.
The Grantham Journal of 9th June 1917 has the following-
DIED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
LITTLE – At a Military Hospital abroad, on 1st June Pte. Horace William Little, Lincolnshire Regiment, the dearly loved and eldest son of William and Ada Little, Pointon School House, Folkingham, aged 19years.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
In memory of Private Horace William Little, 30292, 1st/4th Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 1 June 1917.
Remembered with honour, Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport.
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