Introduction
Henry George Purchase is one of the village’s valiant war dead of 1914-18 and is commemorated on the memorial in the church. He was the eighth man from the village to lose his life in the war. He was usually known simply as George.
Childhood
George was born at Hardington in 1881, the sixth of ten children born to Albert George Purchase and his wife, Harriet (nee Rendell).[1] At the time of George’s birth, the family lived at Broadstone, and by April 1891, they lived at New Buildings. George’s sister, Elizabeth, who was four years older than him, had a mental disability. After leaving school, George worked as a farm labourer.
Marriage
On 10 October 1908, George married Prudence Ann Smith at Closworth. At the time, Henry was 27 and Prudence was 29. Both signed the marriage register, and Prudence’s siblings, George and Mabel, acted as witnesses.
Prudence was born on 30 June 1879 at Halstock, the first child of William and Mary Jane Smith. Her father was a farm labourer. Shortly after her birth, William secured a new position at Closworth, where the family lived for at least thirteen years before moving to East Coker. When Prudence was 18, her mother died from placenta praevia on 29 May 1898 at the age of 40.[2] As the oldest daughter, Prudence was expected to look after her siblings, which she did until her father remarried in 1906. The 1901 census shows the family living at Back Street, East Coker.
Married life
After their marriage, George and Prudence settled at Hardington. By April 1911, they were living in a five-room house at 324 Broadstone, and George was employed as an estate labourer.
The couple had two children: Prudence Doris, born on 1 August 1909, and Albert George, born on 8 December 1911.
Two years after George’s marriage, his mother, Harriet, died on 20 November 1910 at the age of 62 due to chronic nephritis, bronchitis and heart disease. George registered her death the following day.[3]
First World War
During the First World War, George served in the Lewis Gun Section of the 7th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. His regimental number was 26046. He was killed in action in Belgium on 16 August 1917 at the age of 36 and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.[4]
Post-war
Following George’s death, Prudence was left to raise their two young children alone. In addition to her widow’s pension, she received a grant of £5 on 12 September 1917, George’s outstanding pay of 3s 6d on 31 December 1917, and a war gratuity of £ 4 10s on 11 November 1919.[5]
Prudence continued living at Hardington for eleven years after George’s death. In 1928, her daughter married Arthur Tuck of Yeovil, and after their marriage, Prudence moved to Bristol with them. Prudence passed away at her daughter’s home at 128 Broomhill Road, Brislington, on October 16, 1947, following a long illness.
References
[1] Henry’s siblings, Emily Ruth and Charles, were baptised twice.
[2] Death certificate of Mary Jane Smith.
[3] Death certificate of Harriet Purchase.
[4] Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919; Western Chronicle, 5 October 1917, p. 6; Find a Grave® Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current.
[5] World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923; Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
