Harry Halford was born in Cheltenham in 1886.  He was the son of a lodging house keeper, Henry (Harry), and his wife Frances (Fanny) Halford. They lived at 13 York Terrace, Cheltenham.  He had two sisters; Fanny and Maggie. Fanny married Robert Morris Richards and lived  at 18 Welsh Walls, Oswestry. Harry lived for most of his life in Llanidloes, where sister Maggie ran a tea room. Harry worked as a clerk and in about 1904 he joined the local company of the South Wales Borders territorials. On 9 April 1906 he transferred into the regular army joining 1 Bn Scots Guards. He served in this country and abroad in Egypt. In 1911 he was in barracks in the UK. Sometime later he left the army and would have been put on the Reserve List. Harry then spent some time until July 1914 in the Merchant Navy, working on Cunard liner RMS Aquitania sailing the Liverpool – New York route, possibly employed as a steward.

On 27 July, at Liverpool, he was signed off and discharged. War would be declared within the week. He was mobilised on 4 August 1914 and re-joined his old battalion. He went over to France with the battalion on 13 August. In letters home Harry wrote of the welcome the French people had given them, of refugees on the roads and of how the war will be soon over. He also thanked those at home for sending comfort parcels, (especially ones that contained tobacco) and asked for a lighter rather than matches, which were prone to getting wet.

Army Form B104 80A -informing his sister he has been wounded

Harry was wounded during First Ypres when 1 Bn Scots Guards were heavily engaged in fighting at Gheluvelt and the Menin Road. It is not possible to say exactly when he was injured, as battalion casualties were 151 ORs wounded. However, in a letter to his sister – Mrs RM Richards, 18 Welsh Walls, Oswestry – Colonel Hutcheson Poe at No2 Stationary Hospital, Boulogne wrote that Harry was admitted on 15 November with wounds in the left shoulder and behind the left ear, so, given ‘travel’ time from the front to the coast. Given the activities of his battalion, he was likely wounded between 10 or 11 November. The Colonel’s letter continues ‘…he is dangerously ill, but the Docs. hope for the best’. Official notification, on Army Form B104-80A – again sent to his sister, gives his wounds as gunshot to the neck and concussion to the spine and reports him ‘not doing well’. A day or two later his sister, in reply to a telephone message, received Army Form B 104 80, saying he was now dangerously ill with serious wounds.

In another letter dated 25 November, this time to his brother in law and from Queen Alexandra’s Nurse CVE Thompson at the hospital, she writes that Harry had ‘died quite peacefully at 8.35am today’. She also writes that, before he died, ‘He was much the same as you left him yesterday’ which suggests that his brother-in-law had visited him in hospital. His brother-in-law could also have been in the army and nearby, or had visited him in France travelling as a civilian. Harry was buried with military honours in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. He is also commemorated at  St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry, and on Llanidloes War Memorial.

Acknowledgements: 

Photos. Letters and other documents, Medals.        

Miss L Owen, Oswestry. Grand niece.                                                          

Mr K Valentine                                 

(Halls Auctions, Shrewsbury.) 

References and Sources

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