LANCE CORPORAL 1962 HENRY SCOTT (HARRY) CRYER, 1/6th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 19th AUGUST 1915, AGED 28.


LANCE CORPORAL 1962 HENRY SCOTT (HARRY) CRYER, 1/6th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 19th AUGUST 1915, AGED 28.


It was at about 10.30am on the 19th August 1915 that Lance Corporal Harry Cryer went into a dugout in the reserve lines of the 6th West Yorkshire Regiment who were in position to the north of Ypres. As he roused one of the occupants a German shell landed on the parapet of the trench killing Harry instantly.


Harry was born in Muswell Hill, London in 1897 the eldest son of Walter and Mary Scott who both originated in the West Riding. His father seems to have been involved in a number of business ventures in London and Essex but by the early 1900s he had brought his family back to Yorkshire. The family came to live in Ilkley and for a number of years occupied a house on St James Road and Harry attended Ilkley Grammar School. By 1911 the Cryer family were living on Duckworth Grove in the Girlington area of Bradford and Harry was employed by the Royal Insurance Company who had premises on Bank Street in the city centre.  Described as a finely built all round athlete he was a well known amateur wrestler and played for the Horton Rugby Club. It also seems likely that before the war  he served before the war with Bradfords Territorial Army Battalion, the 6th West Yorkshire Regiment.
After his death his comrades buried Harry’s body near to where he had fallen but the grave was subsequently lost and today he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing  and remembered with pride on the memorial at Ilkley Grammar School.

His younger brother Cecil would also be killed in 1918.


Harry's Grave before it was lost




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