Permanent Way Labourer, CCE Department - Private 3/10203, 9th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. Killed in action 1 May 1917. Aged 29. Born Forncett, Norfolk. Son of Edmund Harvey, of Forncett St. Mary, Norwich. Joined Great Eastern Railway 4 November 1912. Enlisted inNorwich, Norfolk. No known grave. Commemorated on LOOS MEMORIAL, Pas de Calais, France. Panel 30 and 31. See also Forncett St Mary

Herbert fell with 20 other men from his Battalion that day. One of those killed was Frederick Lincoln, who had the same prefix 3/ before his service number. This confirms that both he and Herbert enlisted in the 3rd Reserve Battalion, which remained in Britain during WW1. This Battalion, stationed at Harwich, trained men to send out to the three regular battalions in the Norfolk Regiment (1st, 2nd & 3rd), so it’s unusual that Herbert and Frederick found them selves in the 9th. Frederick was also from Norfolk and he too enlisted at Norwich. He too has no known grave and is commemorated on the same panel as Herbert.

At the time of Herbert's death, his Battalion was with the 6th Division who were in the Arras sector. Historians tend to mark battles by the ratio of losses and as such, there is no recorded action for the 9th Battalion until the battle for Hill 70 in the August of that year. However, as we can see, men fought and died throughout each and every week. 20 men from one Battalion would make International news today....then, it would get no further than the Battalion Diaries......and even then, the men wouldn't warrant being named!!

The 9th were a service Battalion and were formed in September 1914. That same month they attached to 24th Division and shipped to France, but in October 1915 they transferred to the 6th Division, who had been decimated reinforcing the shattered B.E.F.