Harry Jowett

Private, 16th Battalion Prince of Wales' Own Regiment - The 'First Pals'. No. 1368

Harry was born on 16th May 1897, at Cross Roads cum Lees. He was the only child of James and Elizabeth Jowett. James was a woolsorter. He was baptised in the same year, on the 20th June at St James' Church, Cross Roads, near . In 1901 he was living at 19, Ruth Street, Haworth with his parents and by 1911 they had moved to 20, Knight Street, Ferncliffe, , and Harry was working as a doffer. He later worked as a woolsorter for Mr J. H. Beaver, Bowling Green Mills, Bingley. His most likely date for enlistment was probably midsummer of 1915, but we have nothing precise - he could possibly have joined earlier, however in 1914 he would have been just 17 years old. He enlisted at Bradford with the 16th Battalion Prince of Wales' Own West Yorkshire Regiment. He was not one of the first 1000 men, but they continued to enlist men, probably because of natural wastage of some of the first 1000 volunteers, it's possible that some could have been declared unfit or sustained injuries in training, or transferred to other regiments. On 22nd December 1915 Harry arrived in Egypt. He was home on leave at some time in 1915, when he said his last goodbye to his mother: “When only child Harry left his home in Bingley, Yorkshire, for the final time his mother waved him goodbye. He could see she was sobbing as he made his way down the hill to the station, so he climbed back up to Knight Street to kiss her and say he would soon be home. Harry was making for his unit and the theatre of war in Northern France. She never saw him again.” [Source: Nellie Casson, Harry Jowett's cousin. Nellie died in 1938] The battalion moved to France in March, 1916. Harry was killed in action near Serre, on 1st July, first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. In 1919 his parents James and Elizabeth Jowett emigrated to Philadelphia, America. His body was never found and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Somme, France. Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 2 A 2 C and 2 D. He is named locally on the Bingley War Memorial, but not on the Cross Roads War Memorial where he was born, possibly because his parents submitted his name for inclusion on the memorial nearer to where they lived.

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