Captain Henry Innes FERGUSON
17th (Service) Battalion Highland Light Infantry (3rd Glasgow)

Date of birth: 5th May 1887
Date of death: 14th July 1916

Killed in action aged 29
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Panel and Face 15C
He was born on the 5th of May 1887 the only son of Henry Ferguson, brewery manager, and Katherine of 4 St Paul’s Road, Kersal Manchester.

He was educated at Durston House, Ealing, and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1902 to July 1904.

On the 2nd of April 1906 he was employed at the London and North Western Railway Company’s works at Crewe as an apprentice fitter. From January 1907 to June 1908 he served in the 2nd Cheshire Royal Engineers (Railway Volunteers) He left London and North Western on the 17th of June 1909 and went to South America to work as an engineer for the Western Railway.

Following the outbreak of war he returned to England. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment on the 15th of August 1914. On the 22nd of September 1914 he applied to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce for a transfer to the new battalion they were raising. He was transferred to the 17th (Service) Battalion Highland Light Infantry (3rd Glasgow) with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on the 10th of September 1914.

On the 13th of July 1916 the battalion provided a bombing party of about 100 men for an attack on the German lines to the north of Ovillers. The party was commanded by Captain Ferguson and left at midnight in conjunction with a number of Inniskillen Fusiliers and a group of Royal Engineers. Due to the impracticality of a frontal assault, due to the German wire, Ferguson decided to attack obliquely. The attack was successful with all objectives being taken in a matter of minutes. A number of Germans were killed and 16 prisoners were taken. Henry Ferguson was mortally wounded early in the attack and eight men were killed. Two officers and 35 other ranks were wounded.

His father received the following telegram dated the 17th of July 1916:-

"Capt. H. I. Ferguson Highland Light Infantry was killed in action 14th July. The Army Council express their sympathy."

One of the battalion officers wrote of the attack: -

"News came on that the front was safe and proud of the efforts of our battalion, we waited for their return. The waiting was hard to hear, but the return sadder to witness. They came back. On the right they had succeeded. On the left they had died. A triumph and a disaster in one. On that small field they had left yet more of the (Oh! so sadly few) gallant men of the seventeenth who, though exhausted and battle worn, had in their own true sprit responded to the uttermost to the call for gallant work. Later the body of Captain Ferguson was found right up to the German lines grasping an empty revolver far ahead in the charge of even his gallant followers."

Another wrote:-

"The raid was made entirely successful through his skill and foresight."

The battalion history conflicts with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as to his date of death.

He is commemorated on the Disley Village memorial.

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