Early Life :

Education & Career :

Educated at Uppingham and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was in the Uppingham Cricket Eleven in 1897, when he made 319 runs with an average of 35.44. In 1898 he played in the Freshmen's match at Oxford, but scored only 6 and 4. He was a vigorous batsman and a safe field. He obtained his blue for Rugby football and was an English International.

He was an Assistant Master at Stanmore Park Preparatory School for some time and adopted singing as his profession - He is recorded as a Professional Singer in the census of 1911 and in the records of United Grand Lodge of England in 1913.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

"The Battle of Loos (25 September to 18 October 1915) was the major battle on the Western Front in 1915, surpassing in every respect all that had gone before in terms of numbers of men and materiel committed to battle. The preliminary bombardment was the most violent to date and the battle was charaterised by the committment of Regular and Territorial battalions on a large scale, in which the Territorials performed just as well as the Regulars. As the battles on the Western Front in 1915 increased in size and violence, so the casualties increased in proportion: Neuve Chapelle 12,000, Aubers Ridge/Festubert 29,000 , Loos 60,000. 1916 was to take the casualty cost to another level. Loos was intended as a minor role in support of French efforts around Arras but circumstances reduced the French effort. It marked the first use of poison gas by the British. Once the initial assualt had failed the battle continued in a series of actions mostly focused on the northern sector around the tactically important Hohenzollern Redoubt."

Detail :

Harry volunteered after the outbreak of war, and obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Reserve Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and subsequently served with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders.

Killed in Action near Hulloch on 17th October 1915, two days after reaching the trenches. He is buried at Arras Road Cemetery, Roclincourt.

The 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards were involved in one of the last actions of the Battle of Loos on 17th October, 1915 at the infamous Hohenzollern Redoubt. One last effort was made to take the redoubt as a preliminary to the capture of Fosse 8 and 'The Dump'. The attack was a failure costing the attacking brigade over 400 casualties in 3 hours, most in fact within the first hour. Harry ALEXANDER was one of the casualties, being killed in action.

Sources; Wisden Obituary : 1915, Official History Military Operations France & Belgium 1915 Vol II.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Book : Most Unfavourable Ground - The Battle of Loos 1915 - Niall Cherry
• Website : De Ruvigny' s Roll of Honour