| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harry Welbourn was born in Beverley in 1894, the son of James Matthew Welbourn, from Lincolnshire a cabinet maker and Emma (nee Bowser). In 1901 the family was living in Norwood Walk; by 1911 Harry was living with his widowed father at 23 Walkergate. When he enlisted he was living with his aunt, Mrs Clark, at 32 Walkergate. Harry attended St Mary's School and worked as a shipyard labourer and then as a labourer at R Hodgson's tannery in Beverley.
Harry joined the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment as a Private in 1915 and spent two years on the Western Front involved at the Somme and Passchendaele. He became a Lance-Corporal in the Machine Gun Corps attached to the 50th Division of which the 5th Yorkshire was part. On 27 May 1918 Harry was captured-along with many other soldiers from Beverley-in the German "Operation Blucher-Yorke", an attack on British and French lines on the River Aisne. He was buried in Glageon Military Extension Cemetery in occupied Northern France, used by the Germans for burials of a range of allied nationalities, which suggests he was held captive in France. One source suggests Harry died of wounds on 20 Aug 1918, but the Beverley Guardian of 4 Jan 1919, in an uncorroborated report from an unnamed repatriated prisoner, says that he died of "hunger and privation" on this date. Harry is remembered on the Hengate War Memorial and on the St Mary's Church and Boys' School Roll of Honour.
Harry married Anne Kirby at Scarborough in 1916. They had a daughter Jane, born 11 Nov 1916, Anne died at this time. Orphaned Jane Welbourn was brought up her grandmother and lived in Scarborough. She later married William John Pallant and lived until 1987 in North Yorkshire.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |