Crawford, Harold

BORN SCARBOROUGH 1890. STEPSON OF MARY CRAWFORD, SCARBOROUGH. LIVED IN HULL. WORKED AS A FISHERMAN. MARRIED TO LILLIAN CRAWFORD AND TWO DAUGHTERS, 10 OLIVE GROVE, SOMERSET STREET. ARMY ADDRESS ABOVE. ENLISTED HULL. KILLED IN ACTION 13/10/1916, AGED 26. HIS BODY WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HAROLD CRAWFORD 12/1139. Born in Scarborough in April 1890, Harold was the son of Benjamin Crawford. He moved south to Hull where he worked as a Fisherman and married Lillian Whitehead in 1909. The couple lived at 10 Olive Grove, Somerset Street with their two daughters Nora and Florence. Harold enlisted at City Hall in 1915. Perhaps it was a decision based on the relative dangers involved. Plenty of fishing boats were lost off the east coast to German warships and mines, maybe Harold thought he had more chance of making it through alive if he put on a uniform and had a rifle to defend himself with; maybe he lost close friends in the boats and wanted revenge; or maybe times got hard and the family needed money. It is all speculation from a century’s distance, but whatever the reason, Harold joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals, and stood shivering in a sea of mud at Serre on the Somme on 13th November 1916. He simply went over the top and was never seen or heard of again. His name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 26 years old.