BORN SUTTON ON SEA 1890. ENLISTED HULL. LIVED AT 11 CROMWELL STREET, HULL (THE SAME HOUSE AS WILLIAM GAUNT). EMPLOYED BY THE HULL AND BARNSLEY, LOCOMOTIVE WORKS, SPRINGHEAD, HULL. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED IN FRANCE FOR TWO AND HALF YEARS. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 28/06/1918, AGED 28. (HDM 08/07/1918). A BROTHER SERVED IN FRANCE, ANOTHER LOST A LEG IN FRANCE AND WAS DISCHARGED FROM THE ARMY
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HAROLD FOSTER HOUGHTON 11/978. Born in July 1890, Harold was an only child who very probably lost his mother in childbirth. The 1891 Census has him living with a Nurse, and by 1901 he is residing with his grandparents, Thomas and Mary Sellars, at Providence House, Sutton-le-Marsh, Lincolnshire. Enlisting at Hull City Hall during mid-September 1914, Harold joined the fledgling 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. As one of the Originals he will have served in Egypt before shipping to France in March 1916. He saw action on the Somme and Arras, most notably at Oppy Wood in May 1917, then Vimy before squaring up to, and halting, the German Spring Offensive in March and April 1918. Harold Foster Houghton was killed in action at La Becque on 28th June 1918 and is buried in Aval Wood Military Cemetery; he was 28 years old.
