Pte 235328 Harold Alfred Shrimpton

• Age: 31
• From: Gt Harley, Oxford
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• D.O.W Sunday 13th January 1918
• Commemorated at: Outtersteene Cc Ext, Bailleul
  Panel Ref: II.D.52

Harold Alfred Shrimpton was born in the December quarter of 1884 in Gt. Haseley, Oxford.  He was born to mother Blanche Bendall; no marriage record is found for his parents, so his father is unknown. He was raised by Frederick and Harriett Busby (nee Shrimpton), his mother’s sister who married in 1888 when Harold was 3.

On the 1881 census at Trinity College, Oxford - Blanche Shrimpton was a 22 year old housemaid born in Great Haseley

In 1891 Harold, 6, is living with his Uncle Frederick, Aunt Harriett and their one year old daughter Constance at 62 Abbey Road, St. Thomas, Oxford. His Uncle Frederick is 31 years of age and was born in St. Giles, Oxfordshire, his occupation is recorded as a gilder. His AUnt Harriett is 29 and was born in Great Hasley

In 1901 he is still living with his Uncle and Aunt who now reside at 3 Cardigan Street, Oxford. Harold is 16, a grocer’s apprentice. His Uncle is still shown as a gilder by trade and they have two children; Winniefred A. aged 9 and Blanche J. aged 5. 

He married Selina Holloway on the 06th June 1908 in Great Berkhampsted. Selina was  from Weston Staffordshire, near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Their daughter Lena May Blanche was born on 23rd April 1910.

In 1911 they are living at 71 Gossoms End, Great Berkhamsted, in a four room cottage. Harold, age 26, is a  grocer’s assistant.

Harold pursued his career as a grocer, initially as a grocer’s assistant and then as branch manager of the Co-operative grocery store in Berkhamsted.

He enlisted at Berkhamstead as Private 4782 in the Yorkshire Regiment but following his transfer he was serving in the 20^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 235328 when he died of wounds on the 13^th January 1918, aged 31. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Harold served 14 months, enlisting or being conscripted in about November 1916.

Harold now rests at Outtersteene Community Cemetery Extension, Bailleul, France.

Outtersteene was captured by the III Corps on 13 October 1914 but no Commonwealth burials took place there for nearly three years. In August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, the 2nd, 53rd and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Outtersteene, and the first and last of these remained until March 1918. The hamlet was captured by the Germans on 12 April 1918, and retaken by the 9th, 29th and 31st Divisions, with the ridge beyond it, on 18 and 19 August, but the cemetery was not used again during hostilities. After the Armistice, over 900 graves of 1914 and 1918 were brought into Plots I, II and IV from the battlefields surrounding Outtersteene and from certain small cemeteries. In the Extension, on the East side of the Communal Cemetery, were buried 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, who fell in August and September 1918. 1,147 German graves were initially concentrated into Plot III. These were later removed to Steenwerck German Cemetery. The extension was used again in 1940, for the burial of those killed in the fighting which covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension now contains 1,393 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 499 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Second World War burials number 72, of which 23 are unidentified. The extension was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Soldiers’ Effects shows he died of wounds, while the pension card shows died of wounds or killed in action.

His widow Selina received Harold’s Army Effects of £6-19s-9d, a War Gratuity of £6 and a pension of £1-0s-5d a week for herself and child.  In 1939 his widow, 55, and daughter were living at 57 Gossoms End.  Lena, 29,  is a comptometer operator.  She married in 1941, and died in 2008.  His widow Selina never remarried, and died in 1960.

Soldiers’ Effects shows he died of wounds, while the pension card shows died of wounds or killed in action.

His widow Selina received Harold’s Army Effects of £6-19s-9d, a War Gratuity of £6 and a pension of £1-0s-5d a week for herself and child. 

In 1939 his widow, 55, and daughter were living at 57 Gossoms End.  Lena, 29,  is a comptometer operator.  His daughter married in 1941, and died in 2008. 

His widow Selina never remarried, and died in 1960.

Harold Alfred is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Great Haseley War Memorial

Northchurch War Memorial in Berkhamsted

St Peter's Church War Memorial at Berkhamsted

War Memorial in the town of Berkhamstead in front of St Peter's Church.
 

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