Harold Edward Williams was born in the Summer of 1896 to Harry Alexander and Ada Williams. Harry and Ada Woodcock were married on 16th April 1892 at St John’s Church in Highbury. Ada was under 21 and the Banns register show that her father had to sign an attestation that he consented to the marriage of his daughter.
The 1891 Census has Harry Alexander working with his older brother as a gun maker living in Herrick Road, Islington. By 1901, Harry Alexander, his wife Ada and their son Harold Edward had moved to Morton Road, Islington. Harold appears to have been an only child.
By 1911, when he was 14, Harold was living in Fortescue House School in Twickenham, a boys’ refuge home run by Shaftesbury Homes (previously known as the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children).
He joined the 15th Battalion Prince of Wales’s Own Civil Service Rifles, made up of Civil Servants living and working in London. It’s headquarters was at Somerset House. Harold’s records state that he enlisted in Greenwich during August 1915. The Regiment was already serving in France and saw action in The Battle of Loos. In 1916 they served at Vimy Ridge and fought on the Somme before moving to Flanders in November. They would remain there for nearly a year, taking part in both the Battles of Messines and Passchendaele, before returning to France for the final offensive of 1917 – the Battle of Cambrai, where it suffered heavy casualties at Bourlon Wood. In March 1918 it was in action again on the Somme having returned to the High Wood area, where they had been two years previously.
Harold was killed in action on 23rd March 1918 aged 21. He is buried in Assevillers New British Cemetery in France. His parents were listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as living at 236 Cramond Avenue, East Wickham, Welling, Kent.
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