Name
William Harris
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Machine Gun Company
3rd Guards Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
William Harris was born in 1888 at Abbots Langley. He was one of nine children (four sons and five daughters) born to Charles and Emma Harris. Charles Harris was a Boot Maker, who in the 1891, 1901, and 1911 Census was recorded living at the High Street, Abbots Langley. In the 1911 Census William was recorded living at Hambleton Hall, Oakham, the house of Lancelot Edward Lowther, a Justice of the Peace. He was employed as a Footman and was one of twelve servants employed at the house.
When he attested at Caterham on 11th January 1916 he was employed as a Valet, and lived at 8 South Audley Street in Mayfair. He was posted to the Army Reserve and joined the Grenadier Guards at Chelsea on 2nd March 1916.
William was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in June 1916, serving with the Grenadier Guards. He was recorded in the Roll of Honour through to the end of the War.
On 18th October 1916 he qualified as a Machine Gunner, and on 4th January 1917 embarked for service with the 3rd Guards Brigade Machine Gun Company. He arrived at Le Harve the next day and joined the Company in the Field on 6th February 1917.
William was wounded in action on 26th November 1917. He received a gun-shot wound to the right leg, and was admitted to a Field Ambulance on 27th November, before being admitted to No 2 General Hospital at Abbeville the next day. Despite his wound being described as mild, he was sent back to England on 14th December, and on the 15th December he was admitted to the 3rd Northern General Hospital at Sheffield. A medical report from mid-1918 noted that William had been “wounded on the outer aspect of the right leg. There was no apparent lesion of bones, vessels or nerves, and that he was healing very slowly”.
He was discharged from the Northern General on 5th June 1918 after 173 days, and presumably returned to a Home Unit, as his Pension Record indicated that he did not return to France again during the War. On 26th June 1918 he was diagnosed suffering from acute conjunctivitis. In his Statement of Disability Form, completed while he was at Pirbright Camp on 28th January 1919, he declared that “he was not suffering from any disability”.
William was transferred to Z Class on 27th February 1919, at the time giving his address as High Street, Abbots Langley. It is not known if he returned home at this point, as his Pension Record noted that he was Discharged on Demobilistion on 31st March 1920.
William Harris survived the War, as did his brothers Charles and Frederick.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
