Harrison Ernest William 2nd Lieutenant 88727
Personnel Entry
Name Harrison Ernest William
Army number 88727
Rank 2nd Lieutenant
Decorations None as far as is known, beyond WW2 service medals.
Date of birth Born Northampton 22/10/1910 (see note below).
Age 29 at the time of his death (see note below).
Unit Joined The Durham Light Infantry - Commissioned 2/Lt 8th Bn DLI 31/3/1939. Embodied 24/8/1939. Posted 11th Bn DLI 12/9/39. Served B.E.F. Reported missing in action - subsequently understood to have been KILLED in ACTION at Hazebrouck 28/5/1940 with 11th Bn Durham Light Infantry.
Company/Battery D Company.
Platoon or other sub-unit
Task or role
Joined Brigade 12-Sep-39.
Promotions
Wounded
Prisoner of War
Died/Killed in action 28-May-40. To read his CWGC Commemoration entry please click [1] here. Inscription reads: "OF BUGBROOKE HALL, NORTHANTS. THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS ARE IN THE HAND OF GOD". No information given regarding any initial interment.
Home address Resident of Northampton. Son of Ernest Wivelsfield and Edith Eliza Harrison, Bugbrooke Hall, Northants. Father - Clerk in Holy Orders. The 1911 Census shows him as a child of 5 months old. Educated Glenalmond and Northampton Schools and St John's College, Oxford (BA Hons). Civil Engineer. Lived at House in the Wood, Falmouth, Cornwall. Buried Grave 5. Plot 4. Row A. Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery.
Source table 11DLI
The McGregor Card Index of DLI Officers shows 2/Lt Harrison as Killed in Action on 27th May 1940 with a birth date in October 1901. CWGC shows him as aged 29 at the time of his death - that would make his date of birth 1910 and not 1901. The DLI Roll of Honour has his date of death as 27/5/1940. Rarely, this seems as though the McGregor Index has noted his date of birth in error. The correct date - according to research - is set out above. 2/Lt Harrison was shown as being at home with his mother on the taking of the National General Register on 29/9/1939, annotated as being with D Company, 11th Battalion.
