Name
MURRAY WALTER HARRISON
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/04/1915
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2797
East Surrey Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BEDFORD HOUSE CEMETERY
Enclosure No.4 Zonnebeke B.C. No. 1. Mem. 20.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
DUTY NOBLY DONE VICTORY BRAVELY WON
UK & Other Memorials
Wheathampstead Village Memorial, Folly Methodist Chapel Window, Wheathampstead
Pre War
Murray Walter was born in 1893 in Caterham, Surrey to James Richard William Harrison, a baker, and Emily Jane (nee Smart).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Louise (born 1890), Murray and Bertha (born 1899) were living at the Folly, Wheathampstead. On the 1911 Census Murray was a draper’s assistant and a border at High Street, Bedford. His parents and sisters were living at the Folly.
Wartime Service
Murray would have volunteered not long after the Great War began. He enlisted as Private 2797 in the East Surrey Regiment and after his training was posted to France on 6 Mar 1915 to join the 2nd Battalion, East Surrey Regiment in the Ypres sector.
He was killed in action on 11 Apr 1915 and was originally buried in Zonnebeke. His grave together with a number of other East Surrey soldiers was lost in later fighting and he is now remembered on a special memorial at Bedford House Cemetery, Ypres.
His name was added to the Wheathampstead Village Memorial in 2014.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £3 and arrears of £3 4s 7d was paid to his father.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
