4899 Pte William Henry Fecamp, 5th Dragoon Guards
Arrived overseas: 7 August 1914. Connection: 1914 Star trio. William Henry Fecamp was born in Bermondsey in 1882. On the 8th July 1901 he got his first taste of military life when he attested with the Kent Artillery, a militia unit. His suriving attestation papers show that he was aged 19 years and five months, living at 7 Claxton Grove, Hammersmith and working as a gas fitter for Mr Burgeman in Fulham. He stood five feet, eight and a quarter inches tall, had a pale complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He also had a number of tattoos including a heart, clasped hands and the intials WHF on his right arm, and clasped hands and a woman on his left forearm. Henry trained for 49 days and then immediately enlistaed as a career soldier with the 5th Dragoon Guards. Although no papers survive for William, he probably enlisted for seven years with the colours followed by five years on the reserve. Certainly, by the time the 1911 census was taken, he was back working as a gas fitter an...