WW1 Casualty: Sapper 426688 Harry Cropper - Sapper 426688 Harry Cropper
© Prescot Reporter
| Unit/Regiment |
Signal Service Training Centre, Royal Engineers |
| Date of Death |
17/10/1920 |
Age at Death |
27 |
Burial/Memorial
& Reference |
Prescot Churchyard
Middle Part West |
| Census Details |
1901 Census -
Harry Cropper is aged 7 and lived at 4 Williams Street, Prescot, with his father Henry, a 50 year old labourer, mother Mary (47) and siblings William (25), Thomas (19), Mary (16) and Dorothy (14)
1911 Census -
Harry Cropper was an Apprentice Plasterer aged 18 and lived at 4, Williams Street, Prescot, the home of his parents Henry (60, a Roadman in a Coal Mine) and Mary (58), who had been married for 38 years. Harry’s elder brother William (35), sister Dorothy (24) and brother James (5). |
| Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations |
Birth Registered Q2/1893, Prescot, 8b, 712
Death registered Q4/1920, West Derby, 8b, 663 |
| Research Ref. No. |
P068 |
Service DetailsHarry Cropper enlisted into the army on the day war broke out, 4th August 1914, at which time he was recorded as being 21 years and 5 months old. He was originally numbered Sapper 6846, Royal Engineers and his service record shows him to have arrived in France in May 1915, although his Medal Index Card (below) suggests that he arrived in January 1915.
He appears to have suffered several wounds in service, but the most serious shows him in an unidentified hospital in France from 10th December 1917 until 10th February 1918. The records show that he was suffering from a “gun shot wound to the right hip”, further stating “X-Ray shows dislocation of hip shaft upwards” and “Part of the head of the femur appears to be missing”.
On 10th February, he was transferred to Beckett Park Military hospital, where he received treatment described as “Massage and Passive Movement” until his transfer on 3rd June 1918 to Highfield Military Hospital in Knotty Ash, better known today as Alder Hey Hospital. The extract below shows this entry in his records.
He remained here until 22nd September 1918, before being sent on three months leave while he waited for an operation. On 8th November 1918 he was readmitted to Highfield, where he remained until March 1920. He was finally discharged from the Army on 19th April 1920 but died on 17th October.
Harry Cropper’s Medal Index Card confirms his arrival in France on 2nd January 1915
Harry Cropper’s grave in Prescot Churchyard
The burial register entry for Harry Cropper
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