George Henry Harris was born in Bethnal Green, Middlesex on 19th June 1899 and baptised the following month on 9th July in St John’s Church. He was the eldest of three sons born to George Henry Harris and Elizabeth Hannah York. His two younger brothers were Arthur William and John. His father George Snr. Was a ‘Brush Maker’ and came to Apsley sometime after 1901, to work for G.B. Kent and Sons Ltd. This was the trade his son George would follow when he left school in 1912 and became an apprentice ‘Bone Turner’ at the Kents factory in Apsley.

The leg bones of bullocks where the most suitable material for the production of toothbrushes and Kents obtained these directly from the London Bone Boilers. To meet demand some 600 head of cattle were required to manufacture 60 gross of toothbrushes.

On the outbreak of war, George was too young at fourteen to volunteer but three weeks after his eighteenth birthday on the 9th July 1917, he went to Watford where he attested and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was immediately posted for basic training and eight months later he was sent to France where, on his arrival, he was posted to the 18th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. George arrived just in time to fight in the last stages of the Fourth Battle of Ypres which he survived despite large numbers of casualties amongst the 18th Lancs Fusiliers.

In October as the Final Push was underway, the 18th Battalion attacked at Courtrai in Belgium against a now dispirited enemy and significant gains were achieved including the capture of Courtrai along with large numbers of German prisoners. The action was not without loss however and on the first day of the assault the 18th Battalion lost over 120 men. Sadly, this included young George and he fell as the attack began.

He was killed on Monday, 14th October 1918.

George was commemorated on the war memorial plaque in St Mary’s Church, Apsley End where he had worshipped. He was also commemorated on the war memorial plaque at G. B. Kent and Sons Ltd. where he had worked before going to war.

George is Remembered with Honour in the Dadizeele New British Cemetery, Moorslede, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, where he is interred in Grave VI. C. 7. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his father George, reads “HIS GENTLE SMILE AND LOVING FACE NO ONE CAN FILL THAT VACANT PLACE”.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

George was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.