Prescot Roll of Honour

John HARMON

10 Market Place, Prescot

Private 3222, 5th Bn, South Lancashire Regiment (Later renumbered to 241082)

John Harmon was a native of St Helens, being born there in 1890. The 1911 census showed him to be a 20 year old Labourer living at 145, College Street, St Helens with his widowed mother, Mary, and his elder brothers Thomas and Martin. Also there were his married sister, Mary Ellen Casey, her husband Thomas and their two children.

He attested to the 5th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment on the 9th September 1914 in St Helens. Whilst serving with the army in the UK, he had two periods of hospitalisation, from 20th October 1915 to 5th November 1915 at Aldershot, and then from 11th December 1915 to 23rd December 1915 at Maidstone.

On 28th January 1916 at Maidstone in Kent, a Medical Panel determined that he was fit for UK service only, but later that year he was categorised as being in Medical Category 'A' and so could be sent overseas. In between, he returned home and married Lucy Hollihead in Prescot on 18th April 1916. They then lived at 10, Market Place, Prescot, (Lucy's home address). Lucy was the elder sister of Frank Hollihead who was later killed in action on 2nd October 1918 and whose story can be found here- this also showing that Frank's possessions were returned to the same address.

He was eventually posted overseas, leaving Southampton on 11th January 1917, and arriving at Le Havre the following day. Initially he was based at the Infantry base depot at Rouen but then on 3rd February he was assigned to the Royal Flying Corps Engine Repair Shops on secondment. He was then posted to the Battalion proper on 26th May 1917 and proceeded to the front.

John was posted as 'Missing' whilst involved in the Battle of Cambrai on 30th November 1917. This action is detailed further on the Memorial entry for Capt Harry Garrett Whitaker here, as he was captured in the same action.

When the British withdrew from the Salient on 3 December, abandoning most of their previous gains, they had lost over 9,000 men as prisoners, plus some 36,000 killed and wounded.

On 28th January 1918, the War Office was notified by the Red Cross that John was being held as a Prisoner of War in Germany, where he remained until after the Armistice.

On his return from captivity, John was placed at the Military Hospital in Maghull and whilst here he went absent on 15th April 1919 for a day, for which he was sentenced to forfeit a day's pay. He was finally discharged from the hospital on 30th May 1919.

John was discharged from the army on 3rd June 1919. He was initially awarded a 30% pension as he was suffering from Neurasthenia, a common complaint amongst men who had been held prisoner and fed a very poor diet.

He was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal. The medals were dispatched to the Market Place address in July 1922.

He passed away in Prescot in late 1929 at the relatively young age of 38. It is assumed that his health had suffered as a result of his time of imprisonment, leading to an early death. Lucy remarried in 1932, to Richard Hayes, and eventually passed away in Prescot in 1965, aged 71.