Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.
10k East of Albert. 10k South of Bapaume.
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At the census of 1901, Horace, aged 14, was living at 24 Yeoman St and working as a Jeweller's errand boy.
His father, who came from Shoreditch London worked as an Ironstone miner.
His mother came from Maidstone, Kent.
He had an elder brother, Alfred 20, a grocer and a elder sister, Gertrude 16, a "day servant"
Two younger sisters were Florence 10 and May 8.
The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were formed in August 1914 in Northallerton.
They became part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
After landing at Boulogne on the 14th May 1915, the Division took part in most of the actions on the Western Front.
Horace Willow lost his life during the Battle of Flers Courcelette, a phase in the Battle of the Somme in which
tanks were used for the first time [described elsewhere] and great loss of life was suffered.
Caterpillar Valley was the name given by the army to the long valley which rises eastwards, past "Caterpillar
Wood", to the high ground at Guillemont.
The ground was captured, after very fierce fighting, in the latter part of July 1916.
After the Armistice, this cemetery was hugely increased when the graves of more than 5,500 men were
brought in from other small cemeteries, and the battlefields of the Somme.
The great majority of these soldiers died in the autumn of 1916 and almost all the rest in August or September 1918.
