HARRIES, Gilbert


No.75944, Private, Gilbert HARRIES
Aged 26


'C' Battalion (Heavy Branch), Machine Gun Corps
formerly No.R/29986, Rifleman, King's Royal Rifle Corps
Killed in Action on Wednesday, 4th July 1917


Gilbert Harries was born on 18th January 1891 in Burwell (Newmarket Q1-1891 3B:542), baptised in Burwell on 25th March 1897, son of Isaac and Emma Jane Amelia HARRIES (née JACOBY).

1891 census...Aged 3 months, he was at School House, High Town, Burwell with his father Isaac HARRIES [32] schoolmaster elementary, born Monkton, Pembroke; his mother Emma J A [30] born Clerkenwell and brother Stanley [2] born Holborn. There was another brother Charles Edward who died aged 10 days in November 1893

1901 census...Aged 10, he was still at the School House, Burwell with his parents and brother Stanley.

1911 census...Aged 20, a student, he was still at the School House, Burwell with his parents. The pension card has the family still there.

He was the younger brother of Rifleman Stanley HARRIES who died in 1916 and is buried in Burwell see here



Enlisted in Hackney .
The discrepancy between recording his unit by CWGC as Machine Gun Corps, and by the Medal Rolls as Tank Corps is that the six tank companies were grouped as the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps (MGC). On 28th July 1917 by Royal Warrant they were renamed "Tank Corps". Thus, at his death, Gilbert was actually still in the Machine Gun Corps.
The difference on 'Soldiers Died' regarding his being formerly in Royal Fusiliers is harder to explain.

From "Walking the Salient" by Paul Reed:-
Prior to Third Ypres long range German guns fired at Dirty Bucket, and German Gotha bombers were also active in the area from 1917. In one such incident men of 'C' Bn.Tank Corps came under fire on 4th July 1917 when the battalion orderly room was hit, wounding two officers and two men, killing four Gunners and a Corporal.

This matches the CWGC records for Gilbert's death. 'Dirty Bucket Camp' was named after the nearby cabaret 'De Vuile Seule'.



Large number of camps within the circled area, including 'Dirty Bucket'






photo; Pierre Vandervelden www.inmemories.com



Gilbert Harries is buried in Gwalia Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium, grave 1:A:4
and commemorated on the monument on his brother Stanley's grave in Burwell

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


BACK