1/4th Battalion. Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Regimental no. 267519.
Previously served with the 1/6th Battalion West Riding Regiment.
Early life:
Harold was born on May 31, 1896 to parents Edward and Ada Whitfield. He was baptised at St John’s Church on December 20. Edward was a mechanic by trade.
In 1901 he was four and living at 10, Wheat Head Lane, Exley Head, with his parents, and younger brother John aged just 11 months.
By the time of the 1911 census they were living at 10, High Fold, Exley Head and Harold was fourteen years of age and working as a bobbin setter at a factory producing worsted and mohair yarns. He also now had a younger brother called Claud.
War service:
He enlisted with the West Riding Regiment in late 1915 or early 1916, more than likely as part of the Derby Scheme.
WO-95/2779/4. 1/4th Battalion West Riding Regiment war diary extract for March 1918:
REUTEL SUBSECTOR 13 – 17 March:
The battalion was holding the REUTEL Subsector, On the morning of March 13th the enemy reoccupied his pill-box at J.17.a.75.62 the whole garrison of which had been accounted for earlier in the
day. His troops came under considerable rifle & Lewis Gun fire during the operation.
During the whole of the period March 13 – 17 enemy artillery showed greatly uncreased activity. This was probably partly retaliation for the raid & partly due to the large working parties in the sector. The shelling came mostly from the DADIZEELE & TERHAND Groups. The BUTTE, vicinity of Bn H Q., Right of Reserve Line & of PATU SUPPORT & PAPANUI SWITCH received most attention & in
the front system PETER TRENCH & PATOKA TRENCH. A good many casualties were suffered in PATU SUPPORT but, elsewhere, they were light. The vicinity of the BUTTE was shelled nightly with gas shells but no great inconvenience was caused.
Front Line Companies were relieved by Support & Reserve Companies. Battalion was relieved the next day.
From the nominal roll of casualties in this war diary, Harold Whitfield reads as: 17.3.18 Wounded in Action:- 267519 Pte WHITFIELD H.
[He died the next day.]
The Keighley News 6th April 1918:
Private Harold Whitfield, of 10, High Fold, Exley Head, Keighley, has died of wounds. Private Whitfield, who joined the West Riding Regiment in 1915, was 21 years of age and before enlistment was employed by Mr Wright, wholesale grocer, Keighley.
Remembrance:
Harold died of wounds on March 18, 1918 at the age of 21 and was buried in grave 4A, row E, plot XXVI of Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.
The family’s inscription at bottom of his Commonwealth War Grave headstone reads: “Our Loss Is Great We’ll Not Complain, But Hope In Heaven To Meet Again.”
He is remembered locally in Keighley’s Great War roll of honour book in Keighley Library and on the Exley Head roll of honour which is in the care of Cliffe Castle Museum.
He is named on the Exley Head war memorial which is a granite cross at the side of the former Exley Head Church on Wheathead Lane.
The church has been sold for development into apartments (c.2026) but the protection of this war memorial cross has been assured as part of the sale.
Post war:
His father Edward was his next of kin and received £6 1s 11d from Harold’s Army pay account on the 8th of August 1918 and a further war gratuity payment of £9 on the 25th of November 1919.
Harold was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service and these would have been sent to his parents along with his personal effects, and a bronze war memorial plaque and memorial scroll inscribed with his name.
His mother Ada applied for a Dependant’s pension and received payments of six shillings per week beginning on the 1st of October 1918.
His father Edward died on the 7th of December 1935 aged 63.
In the 1939 register Ada was aged 64 and living at 10, Wheathead Lane along with her son Ernest, aged 25.
Ada died on the 2nd of March 1951 aged 75. They are buried in Oakworth Cemetery along with Harold’s sister Edna, who had died on the 16th of December 1941 aged 39.
Family grave inscription:
In Loving Memory of Edward Whitfield, Died Dec. 7th 1935, Aged 63 Years.
Also Ada, Wife of the aforenamed Edward Whitfield, Died March 2nd 1951, Aged 75 Years.
Also Edna Whitfield, Died Dec 16th 1941, Aged 39 Years.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Free BMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 about Harold Whitfield.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
National Archives War diary – WO-95/2779/4. 1/4th Battalion West Riding Regiment.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards.
Harold Whitfield in the UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
The Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
