HARRIS, Alfred

Alfred Harris was the son of Benjamin Harris of 6 Mill Street, Stourbridge, and by the time of the war he was living at 192 Quarry Drive with his wife Kate. He enlisted in the Coldstream Guards in June 1915 and was posted to the 1st Battalion. By 1916 this battalion was in the Guards Division and stationed on the Western Front. They had seen little action before 1916 but from the battle of the Somme this elite force was closely involved in all the major battles until November 1918. On the 25th September they attacked in the first battle when tanks were successful. The Germans had plentiful supplies of mortars and well fortified machine gun emplacements in The Quadrilateral. The advance was assisted by sixteen tanks, four of which survived to make a successful entry into the village of Flers. Losses were considerable but the battalion remained in this part of the Somme front for the next five months, sometimes in the trenches and sometimes in reserve behind the lines. There were no major attacks after November but the troops were subject to frequent enemy shelling and undertook patrols into no man’s land. Private Alfred Harris was probably killed in the course of a bombardment on the 2nd January 1917. He was 34 years of age and is buried in Sailly-Saillisel Cemetery (2 C 5) and commemorated on the Stourbridge and Oldswinford church Memorials.. His brother, William, was killed in August 1916.