BORN CATFOSS, YORKS 1896. ENLISTED HULL. SON OF WILLIAM & EDITH ANNIE PAWSON, SKIPSEA.
Hull Pals Memorial Post: Born in January 1896 in Catfoss, East Yorkshire Harold was one of three children and the only son of William and Annie Pawson of Dringhoe Cottage, Skipsea. A Farm Labourer by trade he travelled to Hull to enlist, signing up to fight for King and Country on 23rd June 1915 joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, The Commercials, 1st Hull Pals.
After that Harolds story is that of the battalion itself: training through the rest of the year, the arduous voyage from Devonport to Alexandria, Egypt before Christmas, winter protecting Suez from the Turks and then orders to leave Port Said bound for Marseilles in the spring. From there it was north to the trenches of the Western Front.
Harold was killed in action on 4th June 1916, and according to Michael Sewells excellent local history, A Dear One Gone Forever, he was:
Killed by shell splinters.
Perhaps a polite way of saying his life was ripped from him by flying shards of red hot metal.
Harold Herbert Pawson is buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 20 years old.
