Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'Harold Whitwam was born into a wealthy family at Golcar, near Huddersfield. The family company was founded by Ben Whitwam and his brother John who were handloom weavers before they went into business on their own accounts as cloth manufacturers. When Ben died in 1888 he left a personal fortune of £22,000, worth around £1.5 million today. The business was continued by his
three sons Joe, Herbert and Thomas, and their cousin Edward. Harold Ernest was the eldest son of Joe Whitwam and Annie Everett, born on 30th July 1890. He attended Bradford Grammar School for four years, starting in 1902 when he was twelve. He was on the Classical side of the School and did well in most subjects, particularly in French. He left when he was sixteen and went to work for the family firm, before he went to Leeds University to study for the City and Guilds qualifications in Woollen and Worsted Spinning and Weaving. On his eighteenth birthday Harold joined the newly-formed 7th Battalion West Riding Regiment, the Colne Valley Territorials. He was an effective soldier who was soon promoted to Corporal, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant before he was twenty. His
younger brother Percy, who was also at B.G.S., joined at the age of fifteen with the rank of ‘Boy’, but he left after completing his four year term of service.
Harold was still a student at Leeds when war started in 1914. He had no hesitation in signing the overseas service obligation, and he landed in France on 14th April 1915 with 49th West Riding Division. Within days he went to the front line with other officers for instruction in trench warfare. After four months in France and Flanders, while serving near Ypres, Harold’s company was struck with an outbreak of food poisoning attributed to bad meat and had to be relieved from the line. At the start of September, still suffering from diarrhoea, sickness
and stomach pains, he was evacuated to hospital in London. He was slow to recover and complained of being easily fatigued. In January 1916 he was passed fit for light duties and was posted as an instructor to the Northern Command School of Musketry near York. He remained there for over a year, and it was only on 17th September 1917 that he rejoined his
battalion on the Belgian coast.
Returning to active service after so long in a camp at home must have been a shock for Harold. Moreover, he arrived in the midst of training in new tactics to use against German pill-boxes. After only two weeks, in early October, his battalion relieved New Zealand troops who had completed an advance of 1000 yards towards Passchendaele on 4th October. The area was a featureless wasteland of shell-holes, and on 5th October torrential rain began without respite. The positions occupied consisted of craters containing a foot of water. Although the 147th Infantry Brigade, which included 7/West Riding, were in support for the
attack on 9th October, it proved impossible to relieve two companies which had to remain in the front line. Whitwam and another officer were killed, probably by random shellfire, on the night of 8th or the early hours of 9th October [CWGC says 9th]. His body could not be recovered for burial, and his name is on the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot.'