Thompson, Harry

Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HARRY THOMPSON 11/1268. Born in October 1893, Harry, largely down to the common nature of his name, has been a tricky man to nail down, but I believe he was the eldest of eleven children to Harry and Mary Thompson of 50 Walmsley Street, Hull. A Labourer before the war, he enlisted at City Hall on 14th December 1914 joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. After training through 1915 the Pals were posted to Egypt that December and didn’t arrive in France until the first week of March 1916 when their real war began. Harry faced a Court Martial that August for some offence committed while at a sentry post. He was sentenced to five years Penal Servitude but this was forgotten after “exceptionally good work in the trenches” and he was allowed to rejoin his unit. He was listed as missing following the ill-fated attack on Oppy Wood on 3rd May 1917 and eventually accepted as having been killed in action during the hell of that day. Harry’s body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 23 years old.