R.I.P Harry

Henry William Bourne Palin, British actor Michael Palin’s uncle, was a farmhand in New Zealand who at the outbreak of war in 1914 enlisted in the 1st battalion of the Canterbury Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He rose to the rank of Lance Corporal and died in the Battle of the Somme two years later at the age of 32. In a BBC2 Timewatch series, Palin presents a documentary about the last day of the First World War. He writes: “I’m interested in family history and have always felt rather guilty that I didn’t know more about H W B Palin … I half-hoped that by going out to France, to the fields in which he fought and died, I might glean some fresh information about Harry Palin, something that would help me appreciate how and why he gave his life for his country. I found his name on a wall in the Caterpillar Valley cemetery, close to the village of Longueval.”