BORN HULL 04/10/1897. SECOND SON OF HERBERT ALTOFT (1865-1923) & EMILY MARY LAWRENCE (1863-1936), OF 81, ROSAMOND STREET, HULL. SON OF A MARINE ENGINEER. HE HAD ONE BROTHER, GEORGE (1893-1917) AND ONE SISTER, MABEL ISABELL ALTOFT (1889-1974). HAROLD WAS LISTED AS A SHOEMAKER’S APPRENTICE IN THE 1911 CENSUS. HE THEN WORKED AT EARLES SHIPYARD WITH HIS BROTHER GEORGE.
HE ENLISTED IN HULL, IN JANUARY 1916. POSTED TO FRANCE ON 01/07/1916. HE WAS KILLED AT BEAUMONT HAMMEL ON 13/11/1916, AGED 19. UNMARRIED.
HIS BROTHER, 2ND LIEUTENANT, GEORGE HERBERT ALTOFT, WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, WAS KILLED AT YPRES, ON 24/06/1917, AGED 24. THEY ARE RECORDED TOGETHER IN THE DE RUVIGNY’S ROLL OF HONOUR, VOLUME 3, PAGE 5. THEIR ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO THEIR MOTHER, EMILY, WHO HAD LOST BOTH SONS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HAROLD ALTOFT 22376. Born 4th October 1897 Harold was the youngest of three children to Herbert and Emily Altoft, of 81 Rosamund Street, Hessle Road, Hull. Herbert Altoft was a marine engineer and both his sons had followed him into work at Earle’s Shipbuilding Yard. Harold’s elder brother enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in September 1914, but Harold himself had to wait until January 1916 when he joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. He landed in France on 1st July 1916. The first day of the Somme. We can only guess as to how he must have felt walking into all that. He was listed as missing in action on 13th November during the fighting at Serre though his body was later recovered and buried in Euston Road Cemetery; he was 19 years old. George Herbert Altoft was killed in action on 17th July 1917 while serving with the 11th Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment east of Ypres. The war hit Herbert and Emily Altoft harder than most- it took both their sons.
