On 16 August 1917, thirty-six-year-old Private Henry George Purchase, a member of the Lewis Gun Section of the 7th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, lost his life while on active duty in Belgium.[1]
His wife, Prudence Ann Purchase, was left to raise their two young children, Prudence Doris and Albert George, alone at 324 Broadstone, Hardington.
Henry and Prudence had married at Closworth on 10 October 1908, when Henry was a farm labourer.
Prudence continued living in Hardington for many years, supported by her war widow’s pension. In 1928, her daughter married Arthur Tuck of Yeovil. She and her husband moved to Bristol, and Prudence went with them. Prudence died at her daughter’s home at 128 Broomhill Road, Brislington, on 16 October 1947 after a long illness.
References
[1] Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919; Western Chronicle, 5 October 1917, p. 6.
