Name
Harry Sears
22 April 1879
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/02/1919
39
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
CMT/2464
Royal Army Service Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
UNITED KINGDOM BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Leverstock Green School Memorial, Family grave, Leverstock Green Churchyard, Not on the Leverstock Green Village Memorial, We are not aware of a memorial in Bennetts End
Pre War
Harry Sears was born on 22 April 1879 at Bennetts End, Leverstock Green, the son of Jesse and Emma Sears. and baptised there on 8 June 1879. He was one of 13 children, his older siblings having all been born in Gorhambury.
On the 1881 & 1891 Censuses the family were living at Bennetts End where his father was working as a Gardener.
By the 1901 Census, Harry had moved to London and was working as a hall porter at the Portman Mansions, Marylebone, while his parents and youngest sister Laura remained at Bennetts End. (His parents later lived at 6 Roseberry Villas, Queen Street, Hemel Hempstead in 1911).
He married Miriam Aston in on 6 February 1910 at St Andrews Church, Barnsbury, Islington, at which time he was working as an electrician and living at 31 Huntingdon Street, Islington. They had one child, a daughter, Ivy Madge who was born in November that year at Bexley Heath, Kent. On the 1911 Census they were living at Martins Grove, Crayford, Kent.
His widow later gave her address on pension records as 9 Broomfield Cottages, Bowes Road, N33, London
Wartime Service
Harry enlisted within days of the outbreak of war for the Army Service Corps, motor transport section. He was 34 and was sent to France on 12 August 1914, seemingly without the time for basic training. This may have been because he had been employed as a bus driver in civilian life and would have been involved in the transport of troops. His service record was one of those destroyed in the Blitz of WW2, so service details are unknown).
After surviving the war, Harry became a victim of the influenza pandemic that swept the world at the end of the war. He died on 11 February 1919 at home at 9 Broomfield Cottages, Bowers Road, Palmers Green, the day after his father Jesse. They were buried together in Leverstock Green churchyard.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £25 10s and pay owing of £42 10s 5d.
The headstone on the family grave in Leverstock Green Churchyard, reads:
" In Loving memory of
JESSE SEARS
Died Feby. 10 1919
Aged 80
Also of HARRY his son,
who fell asleep Feby. 11 1919
aged 39
We miss thee when the morning dawns.
We miss thee when the night returns.
From his sorrowing wife and daughter
Also of EMMA SEARS
wife of Jesse Sears
died February 13th 1932
Aged 91
Together at rest"
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
google.com/site/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, hemelatwar.org.
