Harry (William Henry) Ezard was the son of George and Jane (nee Gilbank). His mother was born in Walkington and father in Newbald: on the 1911 census he is aged 12 and living on Northgate. He was married to Mabel who was to be left a widow at a very young age for Harry died of wounds aged 19 on 22nd March 1918. He had been in France only a few months and before enlisting he had worked for M. T. S. Stephenson of Walkington House.
A memorial notice in the Beverley Guardian highlights the grief felt by his family:
In memory of a dear nephew Harry Ezard 22nd March 1918 -“Had he asked us, well we know. He would have cried, O spare the blow, Yes with streaming eyes, would have prayed
Lord we love him let him stay.” At this time, the Northumberland Fusiliers were involved in the German Offensive during the second battles of the Somme , the first day of which took place in thick fog with a ferocious bombardment from the Germans, thousands were killed and more captured. Harry Ezard was one of the unfortunate ones killed on the second day of the Battle of St Quentin. His body was lost and he is listed on the Arras Memorial to the Missing, France. The Northumberland Fusiliers were known as the ‘Fighting Fifth’; they were formed in Newcastle in September 1914 as part of Kitchener’s 2nd Army. Harry’s death from wounds was reported in the Beverley Guardian, together with a photograph.
He is commemorated on the memorial plaque which now hangs in the Methodist Chapel on West End.
