Clarence Henry Reed Harding: Friday 15th February 1918
Clarence enlisted with the 2/2nd London Regiment as Lance Corporal 2671, and then gained a commission as Lieutenant with Prince Albert’s (Territorial) 1st/5th Somerset Light Infantry, before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps., where he was killed aged 21 in the Middle East. He is buried in the Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt.
It seems he entered his first theatre of war on the 7th of May 1917 with the Prince Albert’s (Territorial) 1st/5th Somerset Light Infantry. The regiment had served from Aug – Oct 1914 in Taunton as part of South-Western Brigade, Wessex Division. They then sailed on the 9 October 1914 from Southampton and landed in Bombay 9 November 1914, and remained in India until the 11 May 1917, when they landed in Suez, Egypt, coming under orders of 223rd Brigade, 75th Division. His Officer’s Service Records are available from TNA (WO 374/56649).
Clarence was born in September 1896 in Bath and by 1901 was living in Weston Super Mare. His parents were Henry John, a printer and Clara Reed Harding who by 1911 had moved to 10 Ousley Road. He was the eldest of 3 children with two sisters Doris May, two years younger and Grace Mabel 7 years younger. His father claimed his son’s war medals in 1922 and at that time the family were still living in Ousley Road.