LM 11280 Sdt 2e Cl Henry Weston Farnsworth, 2e Regiment de Marche de la 1er Regiment Etranger.
Born at Didham, Boston, USA on 7 Aug 1890, Henry was a Harvard graduate (1912) who entered the world of journalism (after a spell of working for his father - a wool merchant in Boston) after his graduation. By 1914, he was a war correspondent for the Boston Globe covering the uprisings in Mexico (he had also recently returned from covering the actions in the Balkans - for the Providence Journal - which held some fascination for him). Not wishing to be a mere correspondent in the ‘European Adventure', he travelled to England in October 1914 and, on 5 January 1915, he enlisted into the Legion Etranger in central Paris. After two months training, Henry arrived in the front-line trenches of the Vosges Mountains where he remained until September 1915. Sent to the Champagne front, Henry was soon in the thick of the action between Souain and Navarin Farm during the Second Battle of the Champagne. He was killed near the Fortin de Navarin on 28 September 1915. He is buried in the ‘Legionnaire's Cemetery' (located just inside the military camp of Souain), which Henry's parents bought and designed post-war. A room (the ‘Farnsworth Room') still exists in the library at Harvard. Named in his honour, this room is a fitting tribute to a man who was such a lover of books.
28 September 1915
Research by David O'Mara, Croonaert Research Services.
