Private. 19th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. Service number 48166.
Early life:
Harry (Henry) was born in Oakworth in 1879, registered in Keighley in the second quarter of the year. Parents William and Zillah Pickles.
At the age of one in the 1881 census, he was living at Harewood Hill with his parents. William was a joiner but he was unemployed on the date of the census.
By 1891 he was eleven and living at Oakworth with his parents. His father was still a joiner and Harry was now a worsted spinner, although this would have been half-time with the rest of the working day being at school.
Harry married Mary Louisa Heaton at St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth on February 16, 1898. Harry was eighteen and Mary was twenty. Harry was working as a stone quarryman.
In 1901 he was living at 2, Chip Hill, Oakworth with his wife Mary and their young children Fred aged one and Edith, aged just three months. Harry was a delver in a stone quarry and there were quite a few alongside the Oakworth Road where |Chip Hill was located.
By 1911 they had moved to 3, Burlington Street in Nelson, Lancashire and Harry was still a stone quarryman.
War service:
Harry enlisted with the Border Regiment (Army no. 26398) at Nelson in Lancashire sometime around September 1916. We have no service records for him, but after training he would have been sent overseas to serve with the Battalion, probably in early 1917 when the battalion was at .
War diary 19th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers April 1918 (49th Divisional War Diary WO-95/:
MT. KEMMEL April 25.
Battalion heavily shelled with gas & H.E. at 2.30 am. B Coy at work at the time, A & C & HQ Coys personnel resting. At approx 4.00 am the enemy attacked the French holding the line & succeeding in breaking through on two sides of the hill. B Coy who had suffered heavy casualties during the bombardment consisted now of only Capt. Wright, Lieut. Graham Bronn & 35 ‘other ranks.’ In the heavy fighting which ensued before meeting reinforcements, another 14 other ranks were lost. HQ, A & B
Coys news.
The following is the list of missing:- Lt Col J Ambrose Smith, Capt. Huxley, Lt’s Price, Cartwright, Middleton, Mutch and Marriott, R. 2nd Lt’s Belcher, Wilson, Walker, Thomas, Smith, H. W., Ball, Bell, W. E., and Capt A. B. Cluckie, RAMC. 2 Lt Crosbie wounded missing. 9 ‘other ranks’ killed, 48 ‘other ranks’ wounded, and 333 ‘other ranks’ missing.
Details move in the evening to farm near HOOGGRAAF.
Because of the bombardment it’s likely that many bodies were lost before they could be recovered and given a proper grave away from the front lines. For an idea of the scale of the losses, 57 men from the 19th died in this day and only eight of them actually have known graves. The other 49 were lost and are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial wall. Harry is one of those men with no known grave and is remembered there. He was forty years old when he died.
Harry’s wife Mary was living at 40, Hallam Street off Hill Drop Road in Nelson, Lancashire when she wrote to the Red Cross to ask if they had a record of him being held as a prisoner of war. Their response (dated 10th June 1918) was ‘negatif envoyé’ which means they had found no record of him having been a prisoner of war.
Post war and Remembrance:
Harry was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service and these would have been sent to his wife Mary.
She received his back pay and a war gratuity with a combined value of £14 2s 11d on December 17, 1919. She would also have received his medals, plus his memorial plaque and scroll and any personal effects.
Mary received a dependant’s pension of 13 shillings and 9 pence per week for herself and the children from 6th January 1919, this was raised to 32 shillings per week from 19th April 1919.
He is named on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing. Locally, Harry Pickles is remembered on the Oakworth war memorial.
His name was added to the Oakworth Great War Centenary roll of honour which is on display at Oakworth Community Hall in Oakworth after it’s unveiling in 2019.
They must have been desperate to find out any news of their son, lost in battle in a foreign country, and despite there being no evidence to suggest that Harry was ever a prisoner of war, his parents had the following inscription placed on the family gravestone in Oakworth Cemetery:
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