Henry Charles HOWLAND 1910 – 1944

781374 Gunner Henry Charles Howland, 1 Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery died 7 August 1944, aged 35.  He is buried in the Kohima War Cemetery, Nagaland, India[1] and commemorated on the West Auckland War Memorial.

Family Details

Henry Charles Howland was born 1910,[2] the son of Henry and Alice Howland at Portsmouth.  Henry senior served in the Royal Navy as a stoker.[3]  In 1942, Henry junior married Olive Brown Hutchinson.[4]  In 1939, Olive lived at 75 Front Street, West Auckland with her parents John and Elizabeth and brother Walter.[5]  In 1954, she married George W. Bannister.[6]  Olive died in 1993 aged 85 when she lived at 22 Monteith Close, West Auckland.[7]

Service Details

The service details of Gunner Henry Charles Howland have not been researched.

The Japanese advance into India was halted at Kohima in April 1944.  Garrison Hill, a long wooded spur on a high ridge west of the village was the scene of perhaps the most bitter fighting of the whole Burma campaign when a small Commonwealth force held out against repeated attacks by a Japanese Division.  The fiercest hand to hand fighting took place in the garden of the Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow, around the tennis court, but the heaviest casualties on both sides occurred after relieving forces reached the Garrison and the Japanese were driven off the ridge, so re-opening the road to Imphal.[8]

Burial [9]

Gunner Henry Charles Howland is buried at grave reference Plot 3 Row A Grave 20, Kohima War Cemetery, India.  His headstone bears the epitaph:

“I have put my trust in the Lord.   His will be done”

The cemetery lies on the battle ground around Garrison Hill and contains 1,420 Commonwealth burials and 917 Hindu and Sikh soldiers commemorated on the Kohima Cremation Memorial.

Photographs of Gunner H. Howland and his headstone provided by Teresa Hennessy and Find a Grave website.

REFERENCES

[1] Commonwealth War Grave Commission

[2] England & Wales Birth Index 1837-1915 Vol.2b p454 1910A4 Portsmouth

[3] 1911 Census

[4] England & Wales Marriage Index 1916-2005 Vol.10a p.495 1942Q2 Durham Western

[5] 1939 England & Wales Register

[6] England & Wales Marriage Index 1916-2005 Vol.1a p.1982 1954Q1 Durham Western

[7] England & Wales National Probate Calendar [ Index of Wills and Administrations] 1858-1995

[8] CWGC

[9] CWGC