Henry John Beasley was born on 24 October 1898 the elder of the two children of John Henry Beasley (1875-1933) and Harriet Beasley née Killick (1877-1965). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1898 in the Greenwich registration district. On 18 December 1898 he was baptised at Christ Church, Greenwich, where the baptismal register shows that his father was a lighterman and the family resided at 2 Glenforth Street, Greenwich.
In the 1901 census he was shown as living at 14 Thames Street, Greenwich, with his parents and his sister, Dorothy Maud Beasley (1900-1975). His father continued to be described as a lighterman. When his father completed the 1911 census he was shown as living in a five roomed property at 24 Normandy Terrace, Cowper Road, Rainham, Essex, with his parents and his sister. His father described himself as a journeyman lighterman River Thames worker. Also boarding at the address were his maternal aunt, Annie Eliza Killick née Bristow (1888-1937), and two cousins Sydney John Killick (1909-1914) and Dorothy Annie Killick (1910-1982).
He enlisted in Greenwich as a private in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, service number G/18548. He died of wounds, aged 20 years, on 29 October 1918 at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Southampton, Hampshire and was buried on 11 November 1918 in Plot D, Grave 3203 at Lewisham (Ladywell) Cemetery, Ladywell Road, London, SE13 7HY. As he has no headstone he is commemorated there on the Screen Wall with the personal inscription of ‘Not lost but gone before’.
On 12 August 1919 his army effects totalling £7-13s-7d and his £8-10s-0d war gratuity were sent to his father at 55 Braxfield Road, Brockley. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website. He was also commemorated on an oak framed panel in St Cyprian Church, Brockley, but this was lost when the church was destroyed in 1940.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
