STONE Harold Leatham

Harold was the third son of Mr and Mrs W.G.R. Stone of Tybridge House, Worcester. Before the war he had been an assistant in the furnishing department of W. & F. Webb & Co. The 1st/8th Battalion of the Worcesters arrived in France on 29th March 1915 and found itself alongside the 1st/7th Battalion occupying trenches or billets around Ploegsteert Wood throughout May and June. No heavy fighting occurred but enemy shellfire and patrols brought a number of casualties with 7 men and 2 officers killed and 38 men wounded. Harold Stone was hit by shellfire whilst with the H.Q. signal section and later died of his wounds. His bronze memorial plaque is held at the Worcestershire’s Regimental Museum. He was the 1st to die in the Great War of those who attended the Royal Grammar School.

Source for additional information: In Dedication to a Future World by Mark Rogers, 1999.

A photograph of Private Harold Stone, can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 12th June 1915, available at Worcestershire Archives.