Killed in action aged 19
No known grave
Nigel Walter Henry was born in Aynho on the Oxfordshire Northamptonshire border, to the Reverend Walter Digby Cartwright and his wife, Lucy Harriette Maud Bury. At the time, Walter was curate to his uncle but later succeeded as Rector. Cartwrights had owned the Aynho estate since the late sixteenth century.
Nigel was educated at Durnford Preparatory School, Langton Matravers near Wareham, Dorset, and Wellington College. He went on to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst from where he was gazetted to the Durham Light Infantry on 7 April 1916. He served with the 20th Battalion from the following December.
He was killed on the Ypres Salient on 21 September 1917 and was buried where he fell. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Panel 128-131 and 162-162A.
He is also commemorated on the Durnford School Memorial in Langton Matravers and at St. Michael’s Church, Aynho.
His older brother, John, also in the Durham Light Infantry, was killed in action on 9 August 1915, also aged 19.
His eldest sister, Mary Lucy, achieved great prominence being Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge from 1949 until 1968 when she was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire.