BORN HULL 1878. MATHEW JOHNSON HARKER (1841-1919) AND ANNIE HARKER, 14 JAMES PLACE, HULL. SON OF A SHIPPING CLEFK. HE HAD ONE OTHER BROTHER HAROLD. EMPLOYED AS A SHOP ASSISTANT. HIS WIFE EDITH AMY HARKER & THEIR THREE CHILDREN LIVED AT THIS ADDRESS (1911 CENSUS).
HE ENLISTED IN HULL. FORMERLY, PRIVATE, 25840, EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. TRANSFERRED TO THE 1/5TH DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED AT SEA ON THE SHIP ‘NORMANDY’, ON 25/01/1918, AGED 40.
BURIED: Sainte Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, Departement de la Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.
SS Normandy, built by Earle’s Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Hull in 1910 and owned at the time of her loss by London & South Western Railway Co., Southampton, was a British steamer of 618 tons. On January 25th, 1918, Normandy, on a voyage from Southampton to Cherbourg with general cargo & mails, was sunk by the German submarine U-90 (Walter Remy), 8 miles ExN Cape de la Hague. 14 persons were lost. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?10554
