| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harry Scrowston was born in Leven the 31 Jul 1896 and baptised at St Faith's, Leven the 23 Aug 1896, the son of Robert Scrowston and his wife Harriet. By 1911 Harry was working as an agricultural labourer.
Harry joined the Machine Gun Corps as a private and was pictured in uniform in the Beverley Guardian of 28 Oct 1916. He served with the 23rd Battalion of the MGC. The 23rd were formed on 1 Mar 1918 from Machine Gun Companies of the UK 23rd Division who were serving in Italy. They were heavily involved in the fighting against Austrian and German troops in northern Italy, in particular on the Asiago Plateau and at the Battle of Vittoria Veneto. Harry was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
In addition he was given the Meritorious Service Medal in the New Year’s Honours list of Jan 1919. The MSM was given to non-commissioned officers below the rank of Sergeant; Harry was a Corporal by the end of the war. It was given for gallantry in performance of military duty or in the saving, or attempted saving of the life of an officer. The recipient had to have performed “good, faithful and valuable and meritorious service, with conduct judged to have been irreproachable throughout”. No specific details are known regarding Harry's act of gallantry.
After the war Harry continued to work on the land. He married Sarah Northgreaves at Leven church on 16 Apr 1927, they had two children, Edward born 1929 and Fred born 1932. Harry died aged 76 on 20 Nov 1972 and was buried at Leven, Sarah died in 1978.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |