Alfred HARRISON

36904, Private. b. 1876, Bradford d. Thu. 13th December 1917 (aged 41).

One of the eldest Claytonians to die in the trenches of France, Alfred was called up from his job at the Bradford and District Steam Laundry where he had worked since 1900 into the 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers in 1916.

He was sent to a training unit before France and served there throughout 1917, mainly around the Arras region where fierce and sporadic fighting occurred throughout that year. It was eventually given the title of the Battle of Arras, but was more a seemingly never-ending series of small skirmishes and it was during one of these that Alfred was (presumably) killed: he was given the dreaded status of ‘Missing in Action’.

His wife Annie, of 1, Aberdeen Terrace, Clayton was left waiting for news as to her husband’s eventual fate. This came in early September 1918 when the army officially informed her that Alfred was ‘Missing, presumed dead’. He is commemorated on the ARRAS MEMORIAL.