Born: 19 March 1895, Bradford
Died: 2 December 1917, Cambrai
Buried: NKG
Address: 17 Whitehead Place, Eccleshill
Parents: Walter and Emma, nee Bowker
Spouse: Abigail Lois, nee Hardy
Siblings:
Occupation: Apprentice electro-plater
Organisations/clubs:
Military
Rank: Sec-Lieut
Medals/awards:
Rolls of Honour: Eccleshill, Park & St Luke’s; Cambria Memorial
Children:
Regiment: Yorks & Lancaster
Harold Arthur Wheat
Harold Arthur Wheat was born in
Bradford on the 19th of March
1895, the son of Walter Sanderson
Wheat and Emma, nee Bowker.
Emma died during the birth.
Walter married again to Lizzie
Louise Bach nee Owen and had one
son, Frank born in 1899. By 1911
the family had moved to 17
Whitehead Place and had one
servant.
Harold, at 16 years of age, was
living with his uncle, Arthur
Bowker, at 294 Western Bank,
Sheffield, and working as an
apprentice electro-plater.
Harold enlisted in September 1914
as Private 12/1093 in the Yorkshire
and Lancashire Regiment.
On a home leave in 1915 he
married Abigail Lois Hardy in
Basford. Abigail had
been born in 1897 in
Mansfield.
His Battalion took part in
the Battle of the Somme
when Harold was
wounded on the first day
of the battle.
On the 16th of April 1917
he was chosen to attend
the No. 6 Officer Cadet
Battalion and on completion of the
course was assigned as 2nd
Lieutenant to the West Yorkshire
Regiment and was later re-assigned
to a commission in the 3rd
Battalion of the Yorkshire and
Lancashire Regiment.
On returning to the Front he was
again wounded this time in both
legs and one arm by gunshot and he
was treated in Worsley
Hall Hospital, Manchester.
Harold’s Battalion was
involved in the Cambrai
Operations from the 20th
November to the 30th
December 1917 which
was initially successful
but the surprise German
counter attack from the
30th November to the 3rd
of December turned the Operation
into a disaster.
A total of 7000 men were either
killed in action or went missing,
Harold being one of them, killed in
action on the 2nd of December
1917. He was 22 years of age.
He is remembered on the Cambrai
Memorial which commemorates
the 7000 men who died in the
Battle of Cambrai and whose
graves are not known.
Harold left his effects to his widow
Abigail Lois who received £7.0.3d
on the 29th of December 1918 and
a War Gratuity received by Abigail
Donohue of £8.10.0d on the 3rd
September 1919. Abigail had
remarried in 1919.
Frank’s elder half sister May had
immigrated to Bombay as a teacher
in 1914 and met and married a
Wesleyan Methodist minister,
Thomas Whittle.
She spent the next 20 years
working as a missionary with her
husband, returning periodically on
furlough to 17 Whitehead Place
until the death of Lizzie in 1923.
She named her eldest child Harold
Arthur.
Researched and written by Jean
Britteon, to whom many thanks
