| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harold Barnard was born in Beverley on 20 Oct 1894 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 11 Nov 1894. His father William Barnard was a printer/compositor, and his mother was Mary Jane (nee Harper); both from Beverley. Harold had three brothers William, George Frederick and Herbert Claude. All served in the war. The family was from Beverley but at the turn of the century had spent time in Holt, Norfolk. They lived at 115 Grovehill Road and then at 7 Westwood Road in the town. Harold attended the Wesleyan School and then became an “apprentice stationer and newsagent”, working at Greens of Wednesday Market in Beverley.
Harold spent nearly four years in the Church Lads’ Brigade and was described there as being, “very steady and reliable….with a nice disposition….” He enlisted on 8 Dec 1914 and became a private in the Coldstream Guards, he trained at Caterham in Surrey. He arrived in France on 3 Oct 1915.
Harold was badly wounded on two occasions, on 15 Sep 1916 near Guillemont on the Somme he received a gunshot wound to his right shoulder which caused serious breathing difficulties, requiring him to spend over a month in hospital and a long period of recuperation in the UK. He returned to the Western Front on 9 Aug 1917. On 30 Nov in the Battle of Cambrai, in a famous Guards’ action near Gouzeaucourt, he was wounded a second time, receiving a gunshot wound to his left elbow and requiring further treatment at home. He returned to France on the penultimate day of the war 10 Nov1918 and later took part in the occupation of the German Rhineland. He received the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
Harold left the army in Mar 1919 and later that year joined the East Riding Constabulary, eventually becoming a police sergeant in Pocklington. In 1920 he married Lauretta Craven of York. They had two children Douglas born in 1923 and Brian in 1929. Harold died in 1982. Lauretta died in 2003.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |