CLAY, Henry

Henry Clay lived in Blackheath and enlisted as a regular soldier before the outbreak of war. He was serving in the Ist Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1914 and went with the British Expeditionary Force to assist Belgium in August. He took part in the retreat from Mons and in the crucial battle which held the German advance at the Marne. His battalion was then moved north and attempted to halt the next enemy advance in Artois. In the battle of La Bassée on the 17th October a brief halt was made to German progress but Private Henry Clay was one of those killed in action. He was 26 years of age and is commemorated on the Le Touret, Blackheath and Halesowen Memorials.