HENRY PEMBROKE INNES
There cannot be many who lost their lives in the Great War and whose memorial can be seen from the front door of the house they left to enlist. One such is Henry Pembroke Innes.
Henry was born to James and Grace Innes in 1878 at Islington in London. His two older sisters, Alice (b. 1867) and Grace (b. 1875) were also born at Islington suggesting that the family had well established connections to the area. At the time James was working as a 'manager in the wine business' (1881 Census) which is presumably why, sometime shortly afterwards, he was asked to take over the Dolphin Hotel on High Street, Portsmouth.
We know little of Henry's early life other than that by the time of the 1901 Census, when he was visiting London, he was described as an artist and sculptor. In 1909 he married Winifred at East Preston in Sussex and by the 1911 Census the couple were back at the Dolphin with their son Malcolm who was born a few months earlier. Again Henry was described as an artist but this time also as a portrait painter.
Further Information
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Henry Pembroke Innes, Private (290949) in the Second Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment. He fought in France and Flanders and was killed in action on 27th May 1918. He has no known grave but is remembered on the Soissons Memorial.
He is not commemorated in the National Roll (Section 10) but is remembered on the WW1 memorial outside St. Thomas's Church and the Cenotaph.
Postscript
James Innes gave up the managership of the Dolphin during or shortly after the war. Kelly's 1921 edition shows that Henry's wife Winifred took it over.
Tim Backhouse
November 2013
Acknowledgements
To Cynthia Sherwood for her research