BORN HULL 23/08/1888. SON OF GEORGE DOWNES (1855-1921) & MARGARET ANN BEHARRELL (1862-1914). ENLISTED HULL. SERVED WITH THE 11TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. DIED OF INFLUENZA, ON 02/11/1918, AGED 30. LEFT SISTER FLORENCE & BROTHER JOE, & SISTER IN LAW, ROSE DOWNES. AUNT NELLIE, POLLY & SISCEY.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HARRY DOWNES 24868. Born 23rd August 1888, Harry was the youngest of three children to George and Margaret Downes. A Labourer by trade he married Susannah Henderson in 1910 and the couple lived at 16 Clarence Avenue, Hull with their daughter Dorothy. Harry jumped before he was pushed enlisting in December 1915 just a few short weeks before the Conscription Bill became law and the government would have made him fight as the lowest of all military personnel- the conscript. Blighted by a bad chest from the start he spent time out of the line with asthma in January 1917 and bronchitis that June. No surprise then that when Spanish Flu struck his body was less able to fight it. Harry died on 2nd November 1918 just days from the end of the war. He is buried in Sangette Cemetery; he was 30 years old.
