W.W. Harker
W.W. Harker group
Pte. Harker’s photo appears in the Alnwick Gazette Almanack A11.56
Sharon Barlow has provided the following information and has submitted these two photographs:
William Watson Harker was my great grandfather. My grandmother was only 14 when he was killed. He was a gardener and over 40 when he enlisted. Apparently his employers thought he could be their contribution to the war effort (to do without their gardener). He was a stretcher bearer and has no known grave but I have seen his name on the memorial in Arras. He was mentioned in dispatches but all record of why is not known as records were destroyed in allied bombing.
My great grandmother received a widow's pension but needed to take in washing to bring up her family on her own. She became crippled with arthritis and my mother remembered being evacuated to Alnmouth at the beginning of the second world war when she was wheelchair bound.
William Watson Harker is remembered on Alnmouth A10.01, A10.03 and A10.06
