Harry was born in Walkington; the 1911 census shows him living on East End with his father Roger, mother Ada, sister Kathleen and brother Francis. His father was the village joiner and wheelwright and in 1911 he was still at school and most probably sat next to Frank Hayton. The Northumberland Fusiliers were often known as the ‘fighting fifth’, as the regiment was until 1881 the Fifth Foot, the Northumberland Fusiliers raised no fewer than fifty one battalions for service in the Great War. This makes them the second largest after the London Regiment. A sequence of allied offensives began with attacks by American and French armies on 26th September 1918 from Rhiems to Meuse: two British army’s at Cambrai on 27th September and British, Belgium and French armies in Flanders on 28th and 29th September. These attacks eventually succeeded and the allies crossed the Canal du Nord at Masnieres, breaking through the Hindenburg Line, forcing the Germans back until they requested an armistice on 4th October 1918. Harry died in the Battle du Nord, as part of the battle of the Hindenburg Line on 27th September, 1918, at the age of eighteen years, his body was buried or destroyed in the battle and he is listed on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial to the Missing, Arras, France.
