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Remembered Today:

Two Non-Comms Two Polo players


tharkin56

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Bloody hell, Simon! Good work!

There's a service record for k.d. Harris on air76/211/190. I wonder if it's him.....?

Edit: that's the RFC/raf officers service papers, btw.

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Birmingham Daily Post 11 March 1915

Wow... how rare was this?

attachicon.gif

So that LG was published less than 3 months after he qualified from brooklands, which means that he must have gone AWOL very shortly afterwards. Very interesting. Clearly, he must have then rejoined as an O/R. I wouldn't have thought a simple case of being AWOL would require him to be kicked out - I wonder what the bigger story is.....? Need to get those service papers, I reckon. Maybe there's also a set of OR's service papers, too.
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Yep - very thin though

post-50-0-77101400-1416657906_thumb.png

I wonder if it's a case of what they called 'LMF' in WW2?

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I wonder if it's a case of what they called 'LMF' in WW2?

Very possible, given the description in his brief obit. Poor fellow. I'm certain that there's a very interesting story here. Wonder if there's anything about him in The Times.... Anyone here have access?

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HARRIS, Corporal, Roy King. Son of Col. F. W. Harris. Victim of war strain. Educated Blundells and Sandhurst. Died November 1917.

Corporal Roy King Harris, who has been killed in action . was a very fine rider and polo player when a Lieutenant in the 7th Lancers, Indian Army . He also served with the Warwickshire

and Leicestershire Regiments, and left the Army to go to South Africa, rejoining the Army for the war, when he was recommended for restoration to his commission.

Thanks for any pointers, off 450 players these two escape me for the minute. Deaths could have been recorded in error

Tharkin - what are the sources for these quotes? I'm assuming it's a polo journal or something?

I noticed online that blundell's had a school magazine with very good portraits of old boys serving with the colours. It'll be well worth approaching the school as they must have copies. Would be great if we can put a face to the name. Plus other biographical details, of course. It would be very interesting to see how the information held by them compares with other formal contemporary records (service papers, etc).

Btw, I *think* there's a battalion history for the battalion he was commissioned into (7/KOSB), though I may be wrong on this - it's either 7th or 8th.

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Brother also served:

Name: Cecil Davie Harris Military Year: 1914-1920 Rank: Lieutenant Medal Awarded: British War Medal and Victory Medal Regiment or Corps: Nigeria Regiment - West Africa Frontier Force Sub Unit: 4th Battalion Previous Units: K. Shrop. L.I. Capt.
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His "removal", effective 8th February, is in London Gazette Issue 29095, Page 2466.

No more than 6 weeks after gaining his aviators certificate...... Assuming that it must have taken the authorities a few days at the very least to come to their decision to remove him means that the incident itself must have occurred very shortly after 22 Dec.

I wonder what actually happened here?!

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The way I read his obit in TheTimes 28/11/1917, it was his father that died of "war strain".

attachicon.gifK D Harris obit.jpg

Agreed. But where is Roy in CWGC? I've looked for k Harris and d Harris, and can't find a match. Searched for r. Harris with date restricted to October/November 1917, but can't find a reasonable match there, either.

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No convincing candidates amongst the MIC's, either. Tried searching for Harris+corporal+hussars, Harris+Lieutenant+KOSB, Harris+hussars+Warwickshire, k.d. Harris, r.harris, etc.

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His father was Frederick William Henry Davie Harris (appears to have used 'Davies Harris' as his surname). b.25 jan 1858, graduated from UCL, joined the RAMC as a Surgeon in 1885, promoted Surgeon-Major in 1897, served in the Boer War, promoted to lieut-Colonel in 1905, was adjutant to the RAMC at Aldershot, appears to have retired before the war and rejoined on 25 August 1914. At the time of his death, apparently 'a victim of war strain', he was MO of the Army Clothing Factory. His obituary says that his two sons were serving in the army. He has an MIC, but I don't have Ancestry so I don't know any more about his service.

CWGC has a record for his burial at Addlestone Burial Ground, which I think was the family home.

Edit: searched for his son under the name 'Davie harris' and 'Davie-Harris', but still can't find him.

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Name:

F W Davie Harris

Death Date:

20 Jun 1917

Rank:

Lieutenant-CLO

Regiment:

Royal Army Medical Corps

Type of Casualty:

Died

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Will:

post-50-0-26636700-1416663931_thumb.png

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Thanks all

so we conclude from this is he a non-comm. ?

Roy Kingston Harris death was registered September 1917 which ties in with the polo monthly obit date november 1917.

So if his file is on ancestry, will it say reason for death and would he be on non-comm...

Be the way I have one more possible I will load later

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Anglo-Boer War records 1899-1902 Transcription


First name(s) Frederick William Henry D

Last name Harris

Service number(s) -

Rank Major

Regiment Royal Army Medical Corps

Literary references Medical Officers of the British Army

Rolls Roll: 22

Record set Anglo-Boer War records 1899-1902

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Thanks all

so we conclude from this is he a non-comm. ?

Roy Kingston Harris death was registered September 1917 which ties in with the polo monthly obit date november 1917.

So if his file is on ancestry, will it say reason for death and would he be on non-comm...

Be the way I have one more possible I will load later

Not possible to conclude that he's a non-comm without knowing the circumstances of his death. The best ways of establishing that would be a death certificate and details from blundell's school magazine. Remember that we haven't yet found any evidence of service beyond February 1915 - not even in the MICs.

If you're searching for a death cert, remember that you'll need to check several possible variations of his first name (Roy, Roy king, king, king Davie) and his surname (Davie-Harris, Harris). Then there's always the possibility of misspellings (Ray, Davies, harries, etc).

Not sure that his officers service file is on ancestry - they're still only available at TNA, I believe. And he wasn't serving as an officer at the time of his death, so the file may not have details. Having said that, I've come across plenty of files containing details of a discharged mans subsequent death going right up to the 1960s.

He may have an O/R's service record available through ancestry, but I'm not able to check that for you I'm afraid.

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Anglo-Boer War records 1899-1902 Transcription

First name(s) Frederick William Henry D

Last name Harris

Service number(s) -

Rank Major

Regiment Royal Army Medical Corps

Literary references Medical Officers of the British Army

Rolls Roll: 22

Record set Anglo-Boer War records 1899-1902

His obit in the BMJ says that he got the QSA and KSA, both with 2 clasps. The only QSA clasp that is mentioned was Cape Colony.

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In between Firefox crashing, I've been looking at this man, including an interesting back page to his MIC.

Any thoughts?

My biggest doubt is the date of entry, but I've seen bigger strings pulled for disgraced officers of the right connections.

As far as I can see, the surname HAVVIS doesn't exist, but, if you're a conspiracy theorist, it doesn't take a lot to turn it into Harris.

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In between Firefox crashing, I've been looking at this man, including an interesting back page to his MIC.

Any thoughts?

My biggest doubt is the date of entry, but I've seen bigger strings pulled for disgraced officers of the right connections.

As far as I can see, the surname HAVVIS doesn't exist, but, if you're a conspiracy theorist, it doesn't take a lot to turn it into Harris.

I think we have a winner....... It certainly looks right ( slaps forehead and asks mentally 'now why didn't I think of that...?').

What's the date of entry, though? I'm not seeing a link (and I can't access ancestry atm, in any case).

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In between Firefox crashing, I've been looking at this man, including an interesting back page to his MIC.

Any thoughts?

My biggest doubt is the date of entry, but I've seen bigger strings pulled for disgraced officers of the right connections.

As far as I can see, the surname HAVVIS doesn't exist, but, if you're a conspiracy theorist, it doesn't take a lot to turn it into Harris.

Name: Roy King

Birth Place: Bangalore, India

Residence: Woking, Surrey

Death Date: 26 Oct 1917

Death Place: France and Flanders

Enlistment Place: Marylebone, London

Rank: Private

Regiment: Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Battalion: 15th Battalion

Regimental Number: 32825

Type of Casualty: Killed in action

Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

Comments: Formerly 28641, Hussars.

Craig

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Medal Roll shows

10th Hussars. 28641 Pte., 15th Bn. R. War. R. 32825

BWM/VM only, no date of entry on the roll.

Craig

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Name: Roy King

Birth Place: Bangalore, India

Residence: Woking, Surrey

Death Date: 26 Oct 1917

Death Place: France and Flanders

Enlistment Place: Marylebone, London

Rank: Private

Regiment: Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Battalion: 15th Battalion

Regimental Number: 32825

Type of Casualty: Killed in action

Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

Comments: Formerly 28641, Hussars.

Craig

This....!

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