William Harbour

Born in East Harling in 1880, William Harbour was one of the 12 children of James and Louisa Harbour, but he had already left home before his parents moved into Wayside Cottage on Low Road. By the time of the 1911 census he was living in Fulham, London where he had married Martha Middleditch from Suffolk in 1907 and had a daughter Evelyn May born the same year. He was working as a coal porter in a mansion block, probably tasked with carrying coal to the apartments in the building.

Like his cousin Herbert, William had initially joined up as a territorial member for home service, in his case with the 2nd/5th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade). Converted to full active service, the Battalion transferred to France at the beginning of 1917 where is was first engaged in pursuing the German Army back to the Hindenberg Line, before arriving in Belgium for the Battle of Passchendaele, where his cousin subsequently lost his life. He would have fought in the battles for Menin Road Ridge and Polygon Wood but the Battalion was then broken up and the men transferred to other London Regiment battalions, in William's case the 18th.

Transferred down to the Somme, the 1st/18th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) was part of the Third Army which faced the German Spring Offensive of 1918, known as the Battle of St. Quentin. The 21st to 23rd March saw a strong German advance along a 50 mile from the river Oise to the river Scarpe to a depth of almost 40 miles until they were finally stopped on the 24th April. The British line though pushed back was somehow never fully broken and thereafter the long advance of the allied armies began, culminating in the German surrender and ceasefire on the 11th November.

William never lived to see that day. He was killed on the first day of the battle and his body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on Bay 10 of the Arras Memorial