HARRIS Godfrey Jubilee

G. Harris 1st/1st Worcester Yeomanry, 1st Draft, embarked at Devonport 23rd October 1915 for service with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, disembarked at Mudros 6th November 1915, disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt on 30th November 1915.  Died at Afion Kara Hissar 17th August 1916, Prisoner of War.

Source for additional information: The Yeomanry Cavalry of Worcestershire 1914 €“ 1922.

Godfrey Jubilee Harris was born in Worcester in 1897, the son of George Thomas and Ellen Harris (nee Griffiths).  George and Ellen married in 1881 and by 1901 they were living in Colwyn Villas in the parish of St Barnabas with 4 of their 6 children.  George was employed on the railway and was still working there in 1911 by which time the family had moved to 7 Mayfield Road.  Godfrey as the youngest of their 6 children, all of whom were still living in 1911, was still at school.  After war broke out, Godfrey enlisted as a private in the Worcestershire Yeomanry and he was sent with his battalion in November 1915 to take part in the final stages of the campaign in the Balkans.  After withdrawing from Gallipoli in December 1915 the battalion returned to Egypt.  They were to form part of the defence of the Suez Canal and it was here on Easter Sunday, 23rd April 1916 that they came under a ferocious onslaught from Turkish troops.  It is possible that Godfrey was wounded and captured during this battle or during a battle over the following 4 months as he died of wounds as a prisoner of war on 17th August 1916.

A photograph of Trooper G. Harris can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 13th May 1916, available at Worcestershire Archives.