This is the second post in a series looking at named photographs of British soldiers during the Great War. Sadly, the majority of photos of serviceman from the period are now un-identifiable, but occasionally enough detail is written on the photo to identify the soldier.
This particular photographic postcard had been annotated on the rear in pencil – “Les Shock 2186 Pte Hereford Regt”. This made it quick and easy to track him down and find out more.
Harold Leslie Shock was born on 15th October 1896 at Ross-on-Wye, one of 16 children to John and Martha Shock. In later life, he would go by the name Leslie Harold Shock. By 1911, he was working as an errand boy for a printer in Ross-on-Wye.
Leslie Shock enlisted into the Herefordshire Regiment on the 6th September 1914, just over a month after war was declared. The Herefordshire Regiment were a solely territorial unit, unsurprisingly based in Herefordshire.
At some point, Leslie was transferred to the 10th South Wales Borderers with what looks like a draft of men from the Herefordshire Regiment. A note in the medal rolls also indicates that he was attached to an Infantry Base Depot. We know from his Herefordshire Regiment cap badge in the photograph that it must have been taken before his transfer.
An interesting point to note from the photograph is that Leslie is wearing the 1903 pattern bandolier and a pair of spurs. As an infantryman, these are indicative signs that he was a member of the regimental transport.
The photograph also gives us another clue, we can see that Leslie is carrying a field dressing in the specially designed pocket of his service dress jacket. This would indicate that the photograph was taken whilst on active service.
From his pension record, we know that Leslie was wounded by a gunshot wound to the skull, which left him suffering from vertigo. Whilst recovering from his wounds and awaiting discharge, he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion South Wales Borderers, a unit based solely in the UK throughout the war.
Leslie was discharged from the army on 27th November 1917, aged 21. This is undoubtedly due to his head wound sustained on the Western Front. For his service in the Great War, he was awarded the British War and Victory medals and a Silver War Badge (No. 288960).
After discharge, Leslie returned to his home at 9 The Crofts, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. In 1918, he married Eunice McCroakam and by the early 1920s he’d moved to South Elmsall, Yorkshire where Eunice was from. By 1939, Leslie was working as a Colliery Stone Contractor in Hemsworth, Yorkshire.
In 1954, Eunice died and it appears that Leslie re-married in 1957, this time to Alice Eva House. This was sadly a short marriage, as Alice died in 1962. Leslie re-married for a third time to Sarah Angel Louth in 1967. Little else is currently know about Leslie’s post war life.
Leslie died aged 81 in 1978 at Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
Metcalfe Military History 