In memoriam

Captain Herbert Charles Pallant

 

 

Herbert Charles Pallant was born on 25 March 1887 at Park Farm, Wherstead, Suffolk, the ninth of ten children of farmer Henry Pallant and his wife Susan Hill Pallant (née Harding). Educated at Champness Private School, Ipswich, at the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Park Farm with his parents and two of his eight surviving siblings, and working as a post office clerk.

From 7 July 1912 to 7 January 1914 he served in the British South African Police in Rhodesia.

Pallant enlisted in the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps on 14 June 1915 (No.4253). On 1 September 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant and posted to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. On 9 December 1915, however, he was posted to the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron. He joined the squadron at Boeschepe in France on Christmas Day 1916. At the time it was part of the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment, serving as corps cavalry to X Corps.

The regimental war diary mentions him a number of times through the first half of 1917:

3 January 19: "Usual working [party] under Lt Pallant. The party was again shelled today but no one hit."
10 January 1917: "Usual working party under Lieut Pallant."
31 January 1917: "Trench party under 2 Lt Pallant."
21 March 1917: "Trench Digging party under 2 Lt Pallant."
29 June 1917: "Conducting party of 128 OR [other ranks] under 2 Lts Pallant & Eighteen to Calais for Horses."

On 1 July 1917 he was promoted to lieutenant.

In September 1917 the 2nd NIH Regiment was disbanded and most of its officers and men, including those of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron, were transferred to the infantry, the majority to the 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers. Although initially posted to the battalion, Pallant instead returned to England on 29 October, having applied for a commission in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers.

At this time he married Mabel Jane Garnham, sister of fellow Inniskilling Service Squadron officer George Garnham, in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Pallant's transfer to the Indian Army took place on 26 November, when he sailed for India.

He died from influenza 'due to exposure whilst on field service' at Kain, East Persia, on 21 February 1920 while serving in the Supply and Transport Corps. Buried at Kain Military Cemetery, his grave could not be found when those buried there were moved to Hamadan Military Cemetery. A Special 'Kipling Memorial' was erected there for him and one other man. In 1962 the Hamadan burials were moved to the newly established Tehran War Cemetery. Pallant is commemorated there on Special Memorial No.9, which reads:

TO THE MEMORY OF

CAPTAIN
H. C. PALLANT
I. A. RESERVE OF OFFICERS
21ST FEBRUARY 1920

BURIED AT THE TIME
IN KAIN MILITARY CEMETERY
BUT WHOSE GRAVE IS NOW LOST

"THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT
BE BLOTTED OUT"

 

He is also commemorated on a plaque in St Mary's Church, Wherstead (below).

 

 

First image kindly provided by Steve Rogers, Project Co-ordinator of the The War Graves Photographic Project. My thanks to Kevin Widdick for taking the time to photograph and send me second image.

 

This page last updated 24 October 2023.