2/5th (Territorial) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
Harold Cyril Lacey was born in Cheltenham on 6 June 1891, the son of hairdresser Joseph Lacey and Alice who lived at Carno, 35 Bath Parade. He attended St Luke’s Primary School and then Cheltenham Grammar School between 1906 and 1911. He then went on to train as a teacher at St Paul’s Teacher Training College, Swindon Road.
He volunteered for service on 15 September 1914 in the 2/5th (Territorial) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment in Gloucester. In 1915 he was promoted sergeant and on 25 May 1916 he arrived in France.
The following year he saw active service during the advance on the Hindenburg Line and at Ypres and Cambrai. On 18 April 1918, during the Battle of Bethune, Sergeant Lacey was severely wounded and gassed. He was immediately evacuated to the 54th Casualty Clearing Station at
Aire-sur-Lys but tragically succumbed to his injuries on 24 April.
Sergeant Harold Cyril Lacey is buried at Aire Communal Cemetery. He is named on the War Memorials at Leckhampton and Cheltenham, in St Luke’s Church and at Pate’s Grammar School.