Company Sergeant Major HENRY THOMAS CHURCHER M.M.

3, Avenue Road, Winchester

Family Background

Henry Thomas Churcher (above) was born on 11 March 1891 in Bemerton, near Salisbury. He was the eldest son of Lot and Elizabeth Churcher and had five brothers.

After moving to Winchester, the family first lived in Queen’s Terrace from where Henry went to Western Infants School, then in Elm Road, before moving on to St Thomas Senior Church of England Boys’ School in Mews Lane in 1898. At some stage before 1911 the Churchers moved to 3, Avenue Road, Fulflood. By then, 20-year-old Henry was working as a gardener like his father.

Great War Record

Henry enlisted with the Hampshire Regiment on 16 September 1914, shortly after the start of the Great War. His brother Harold also joined the Hampshires, probably on the same day. The two brothers were posted to India in early 1915 where they remained for the next two years.

Henry Churcher clearly displayed leadership qualities from an early stage because by October 1915 he had been appointed Company Sergeant Major. It was an important job, with responsibilities that included administration and discipline. In combat, Henry’s main responsibility was the supply of ammunition to his men.

In April 1917, Henry was sent from India to Egypt. His first experience of combat came in November that year in Palestine when British troops captured Jerusalem from the Turks. His brother Harold was wounded in the fighting but recovered.

In May 1918, Henry was transferred again, this time to fight against the Germans on the Western Front in France. That summer he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in a battle in which his battalion lost no fewer than 174 men killed and as many wounded out of a total of around 1,000. His Commanding Officer described him as ‘a tower of strength’.

Henry died in an Army field hospital on 19 September 1918, less than two months before the war ended. He had been wounded a few days earlier in fighting around the village of Havrincourt.

Family after the Great War

Harold Churcher, Henry’s brother, survived the Great War as did another brother called Ernest. The Churcher family remained in Winchester after the war and maintained close ties with Fulflood.

Company Sergeant Major Henry Thomas Churcher was entitled to the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. He is buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, Pas de Calais, France, and is mentioned on the memorials at St Matthew’s and St Paul’s churches in Winchester.

Activities: It is likely that Henry Churcher and his brother joined the Army together. Why do you think they did so? On a map retrace Henry’s wartime journey from England to India, then to Egypt, Palestine and finally France.