Henry Salvin Hurworth

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born in Stranton, Hartlepool on 26th March 1889 Henry Salvin was the son of John Edward Robinson Hurworth and his wife Mary Ann (nee Parsons) whom he had married in 1882. John was the local Relieving Officer, a parish official administering relief to the poor, who originally came from Kilburn in the North Riding. Henry (known as Harry) was one of their six children, four boys (John, Bertrand, Frank and Harry) and two girls, Nellie and Edith, and in April 1908 when he nineteen years old he left his home in Cromwell Terrace and sailed from Liverpool for Canada for life as a farm labourer. Arriving in Saskatchewan Harry applied for a Homestead Grant and eight years later he had his own farm in Lac Vert, near Humboldt.

On 4th March 1916 Harry travelled the 75km to Wadena to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and this man of brunette complexion became Private 267260 of the 214th Battalion. After initial training at Camp Hughes, Manitoba the battalion sailed for England on the SS Grampian at the end of April 1917, where they were absorbed into the 15th Reserve Battalion on arrival at Bramshott. Before a Medical Board on arrival at the Camp Harry was found to have defective vision and was categorised at B1, non-combatant service fit for employment in labour, forestry, and railway units. Posted to the Saskatchewan Regimental Depot in June he was posted to 4th Battalion Canadian Railway Troops in France, in January 1918 to the Canadian Labour Pool and finally at the end of March 1918 to 78 Company, Canadian Forestry Corps, who were working in the Bordeaux region.

It is not known how long Harry was ill in hospital, but he died of influenza and pneumonia in the Municipal Hospital, Dax on 29th July 1918.

Harry Salvin Hurworth is remembered in the Hartlepools on H115.18, W111.54 and W111.86 page 18

He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Hurworth