A visit to Thiepval (1 - Norman Hiley)

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme battlefields, near Albert in northern France, bears the names of 72,194 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces.

Four of these men had the Hiley or Highley surname. Today's post features Norman Hiley.

Thomas Norman Hiley, born in 1889, was from Shipley near Bradford in Yorkshire. He was the youngest of the 7 children of Joseph and Sophia who survived, 4 having died young. In 1911 Norman was a Warehouseman.

Norman was a Sergeant in the East Yorkshire Regiment 7th Battalion. The Battalion was part of the 17th (Northern) Division. The Division’s first major engagement was in July 1916, when it fought in the battles of Albert and Delville Wood, both part of the larger Battle of the Somme. Norman was killed in action on the first day of this battle, 1st July 1916.