Harold Ernest Landfear
Memorial: Thornbury Baptist Church
Regiment: Devonshire Regiment
Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Lance Corporal 41561
Parents: Nicholas and Eliza Lanfear
Home address: Morton, Thornbury, Bristol
Pre-war occupation: Assistant on a farm
Date of birth: 1897
Place of birth: Morton near Thornbury, Bristol
Date of death: 04/10/1917
Buried/Commemorated at: Buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Commemorated on Thornbury Baptist Church Memorial
Age: 20
Further information:
Harold was born at Morton near Thornbury, the son of a market gardener/farmer and the second youngest child of nine children with five brothers and three sisters.
If Harold had enlisted on his 18th birthday it is likely that he would have joined his regiment (1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment) in France and Flanders at the beginning of 1916 and fought in various actions on the Western Front over the following two years. Harold was killed in action during the Battle of Passchendaele (31 July – 10 November 1917) the result of which was indecisive at a cost to the allies of around 400,000 casualties. He was originally reported as missing, then presumed killed. On the Baptist Church Memorial, he is listed as “missing in France”. It is therefore likely that his remains were not identified until after the Armistice when graves were brought in to Hoog Cemetery from the battlefields of Zillebeke, where Harold had been buried when he fell.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
http://www.thornburyroots.co.uk/war/ww1-soldiers-a-l/#lanfear