Hall, Harry

Sergeant, HARRY HALL 11/172. Born at Howden, in 1887, Harry was the second of six children to John and Harriet Hall, of 614 Holderness Road, Hull (HDM 12/06/1916 address). He lived with his wife Emily and their two children, Doris and Alfred, at ‘Flatgate’, Howden, East Yorkshire. A Mechanic by trade, he travelled to Hull to enlist, queuing outside City Hall in the early days of September 1914 and joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment- ‘The Tradesmen’- Hull Pals. Training with the battalion in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915, Harry served in Egypt before shipping to France and the Western Front in March 1916. Then the real war began. Harry was killed in action on 30th May 1915 and is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 29 years old. I wonder if it was Harry’s body Private Graystone looked down on in his diary entry that day:
“The two bodies (killed earlier in the morning) have been lying beside us all day in a pool of blood. It is a pity that they cannot be buried at once for the sight of them is a severe trial to the nerves of the strongest. They lie there- an awful lesson of war.”