AIRCRAFT MECHANIC 3rd CLASS 66571 HAROLD HIRST, ROYAL AIR FORCE, 9TH BALLOON COMPANY. DIED FROM PNEUMONIA 16th OCTOBER 1918, AGED 27 YEARS

AIRCRAFT MECHANIC 3rd CLASS 66571 HAROLD HIRST, ROYAL AIR FORCE, 9TH BALLOON COMPANY. DIED FROM PNEUMONIA 16th OCTOBER 1918, AGED 27 YEARS
On the 18th September 1918 whilst home of leave from the RAF Harold Hirst married Frances Mary Fox at Addingham Parish Church. After spending just a few days with his new bride he left Ilkley and began the long journey back to his unit which was stationed in Italy. It was while travelling that Harold contracted influenza and was admitted to hospital near to Vincenza, Northern Italy on 13th October 1918.  Sadly, his condition deteriorated and just three days later he succumbed to broncial-pneumonia. He had been married for just 25 days.

Harold was born in Thackley, a suburb of Bradford in 1892 one of 7 children of Joseph Hirst a wool merchant and his wife Mary. The family moved to Ilkley not long after Harold was born and lived in a large house on Easby Drive. Educated at Ilkley Grammar School he later worked with his father in the family business.

At the beginning of the war Harold had enlisted into the Red Cross as an ambulance driver probably serving with the French Army. In April 1917 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (later RAF) and served as a driver with the 9th Balloon Company in France. Balloon Companies provided large balloons that were used for spotting enemy movements and for directing artillery fire. Later the unit transferred to Italy where they were in support of the Italian Army fighting the Austrians.


Today, Harold Hirst lies in Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery in Italy and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2nd LIEUTENANT LEONARD FOSTER, 15th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (LEEDS PALS BATTALION) DIED OF WOUNDS 13th AUGUST 1916 AGED 28.

Image
2 nd LIEUTENANT LEONARD FOSTER, 15 th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (LEEDS PALS BATTALION) DIED OF WOUNDS 13 th AUGUST 1916 AGED 28. On the morning of the of the 1 st July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, one thousand men of the Leeds Pals awaited the signal to leave the relative safety of their trenches and advance towards the German trenches situated a few hundred yards away in the remains of the village of Serre. Days of heavy British shelling had reduced the landscape to a sea of craters and it was blithely assumed that the enemy wire and trenches had been obliterated. At 7.30am precisely whistles blew and the Pals climbed out of their trenches and began to fan out before starting their deliberate advance towards the German lines. But contrary to their expectations the enemy had not been subdued and instead rushed to man their firing lines and opened up a deadly hail of machine guns bullets. The Leeds men now moving forward in lines walked steadily
Read more

PRIVATE 77570 HUGH McALISTER ALLAN-BLACK 9th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT) KILLED IN ACTION 8th AUGUST 1918 AGED 19

Image
PRIVATE 77570 HUGH McALISTER ALLAN-BLACK 9 th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT) KILLED IN ACTION 8 th AUGUST 1918 AGED 19 The youngest son of John Allan-Black and his wife Claire, Hugh was born in the hamlet of Stone Gappe near Lothersdale in the Craven District on the 25 th May 1899. His father was a wool merchant whose father Charles Ingham Black was a noted Irish scholar and poet and formally the Vicar of Burley in Wharfedale. His mother Claire nee Delius was the sister of the famous conductor Frederick Delius of Bradford and who in 1935 would write his biography. When Hugh was very young the family moved to Victoria Avenue in Ilkley where he attended the grammar school. However, in 1914 the family left the town and moved to Castletown on the Isle of Man where Hugh attended King Williams College. Hugh left school in 1917 when he achieved the age of 18 and enlisted into the army. His health was not of the strongest and he appears to have suffered from a w
Read more

2nd LIEUTENANT GERALD HARMER, 9th BATTALION NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 11th AUGUST 1916 AGED 21.

Image
2 nd LIEUTENANT GERALD HARMER, 9 th BATTALION NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 11 th AUGUST 1916 AGED 21. The 9 th North Staffs. spent much of the Spring and Summer of 1916 in the Somme area of the Western Front preparing for the planned offensive which the Allied High Command hoped would win the war. As a designated pioneer battalion the Staffordshires served a dual role, on the one hand as trained infantry, whilst on the other they had the necessary skills to accomplish important construction and engineering jobs which were a feature of static trench warfare. The battalion avoided the dreadful events of July 1 st , the beginning of the great Somme battle and busied itself just behind the front line constructing roads, trenches as well helping to bury the huge toll of dead from the heavy fighting. On the night of 10 th -11 th August 1916 the 9 th Staffs were in the front line near to Bezantin le Petit and sent out three companies to help widen and d
Read more