Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, South Africa.
• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

9 April - 29 April 1918. As the first phase of the great German campaign of 1918 lost momentum and failed in its objective to split the British and French armies, subsidiary attacks were shift the balance of the attack and to seek opportunities to exploit other sectors. On the Lys the Germans initially enjoyed spectacular success against a Portuguese Division but the gap was soon plugged and the advance halted.

Detail :

Luckily Harry’s attestation form when he signed up for service on 16 January 1915 at Liverpool still exists but raises as many questions as it gives answers. It shows he joined the Army Service Corps and was given the number S2/SR/02366. It was filled in originally as Henry Crook, by the army clerk, but the Henry’s are crossed through and overwritten with Harry, and that is how Harry signed the form. It has the address as 71 Wellington Road but the on the reverse sheet it is 78 Wellington Road, and it also shows Harry had previously served with the Grenadier Guards. He is described as being a clerk who is 41 years and 70 days of age, which means he must have been born about 7 November 1873.These surviving army papers show him marrying an Alice Fifield at Kensington Registry Office, London on 1 November 1902, and a child born 28 October 1908 in Liverpool, called Edith.

Though attesting as a Private he was promoted to Corporal the same day, arriving to join his unit at Aldershot four days later, on the 20th. Obviously due to his previous military experience he was again promoted on the 29th to Sergeant and joined 48 Depot Supply Unit on the 6 February 1915. Promotions happened while the ink was still drying on the previous one, becoming staff sergeant on the 8th February, Staff Quarter Master Sergeant on the 12th, and Staff Sergeant Major on the 27th, all in the space of forty three days.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and sent to the Liverpool Regiment, 20th Battalion. The last mention for Harry in the war diary of the 20th Battalion is on 12 January 1918 when he is designated as the Orderly Officer looking after the rear of the column as it marches as a Battalion from Longueau, on the outskirts of Amiens, through Domart, Hangard, Marcelcave to Bayonvillers. On 1 February 1918 orders were received that the 20th Battalion was to be disbanded and dispersed between the 17, 18, and 19th Battalions and Harry became part of the draft of 12 Officers and 250 other ranks sent to the 17th Bn. The King’s Liverpool Regiment (1st City Battalion, Liverpool Pals) at Fargnier on 6 February 1918.

Harry is first mentioned in the 17th Battalion diary for 19 April 1918, Harry was out patrolling, when he was seriously injured at the front line, outside the small town of Bailleul, which is south-east of St Jans Cappel. Patrols were sent out continuously at that period, by both sides, trying to probe each other’s defences, and vigorously patrolling the forward defences, and this subsequently led to many losses amongst junior officers and men. The constant artillery bombardments by both sides helped add to the tally of dead and injured. The battalion diary for 18 April shows they are bivouacked on the side of the Westoutre to Mont Kokereel as the Corps Reserve. At 8.00 am the battalion proceeded to the front line south east of St Jans Cappell as relief for a unit of the 101st Infantry Brigade. The Battalion Headquarters being accommodated in a chateau.

On the 19th April in the front line the patrolling was vigorous - 2nd Lieut R Gill M.C. & M.M. proceeded on patrol with five ‘other ranks’ - and enemy party was met, shots were exchanged. 2 Lieut Gill was hit in the head and fell into a ditch, the remainder of his party returned at 4.10 am to our lines, a further party of 8 other ranks led by 2nd Lieut Crook was fired upon from a distance of ten yards. 2nd Lieut Crook was badly wounded also one other ranks. Efforts to save them proved futile owing to the intensity of enemy fire.

Harry, although fighting to stay alive, finally succumbed to his wounds on Saturday, 20 April, 1918. He was buried nearby, but his grave, like many others, was later lost due to the very nature of the fighting, and he is commemorated with many of his comrades on the screen wall at the back of Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium.

Harry’s medal index card shows him as Henry Cook, S.S.M. in the Army Service Corps as S2/SR/ 02366 arriving in France 30 July 1915 and later being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Liverpool Regiment. He was awarded the 1915 Star for his service with the A.S.C., and the British War Medal and Victory Medal with the Liverpool Regiment. These were to be sent to his widow Mrs H Crook at 69 Goswell Street, Wavertree. (Florence Crook is found on the electoral register from 1918 at this address unto 1937) It also reports him as missing, died 20/4/18, which confirms and validates other information.

Masonic :

Harry Crook was initiated into Everton Lodge No 823 on 16 July 1913, a licensed victualler residing 78 Wellington Road, age 38 years. This would be The Railway Inn, pictured below, circa 1885, but later badly damaged through enemy bombing in WW2. He was passed to the second or fellow craft degree on 20 August and raised as a master mason in the third degree on 17th September, with his Grand Lodge Certificate issued on 8 October 1913.

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