Current Information:

Roxeth

Born-Harrow

Etaples Military Cemetery, France

Third Battle of Ypres

This was a campaign fought between July and November 1917 and is often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, a village to the north-east of Ypres which was finally captured in November. It was an attempt by the British to break out of the Ypres salient and capture the higher ground to the south and the east from which the enemy had been able to dominate the salient. It began well but two important factors weighed against them. First was the weather. The summer of 1917 turned out to be one of the the wettest on record and soon the battlefield was reduced to a morass of mud which made progress very difficult, if not impossible in places. The second was the defensive arrangements of concrete blockhouses and machine gun posts providing inter-locking fire that the Germans had constructed and which were extremely difficult and costly to counter. For 4 months this epic struggle continued by the end of which the salient had been greatly expanded in size but the vital break out had not been achieved.

Harry Lee died from wounds on 2nd September, 1917, after having been sent to a base hospital on the coast. The 9th East Surrey battalion was part of 72 Brigade, 24th Division, that, between 27th-31st August, 1917, had been in the front line in the Mount Sorrel sector in the southern part of the Ypres salient and it is likely that this is where he was wounded.