2nd Lieut. C. Harper

Charles Harper was born in Morville in 1887. He was the son of John Harper, a farmer, and his wife, Mary. They lived at Round Hill, Haughton.

In 1911, Charles was living in Leominster where he was working as a grocer's assistant.

Charles first served in the 19th Battalion Cheshire Regiment - a labour battalion formed in Oldham in April 1916. He went to France with the battalion in May 1916 as a Corporal (L/Sjt). On 31st July, 1917 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry and sent to Salonika. He died on 27th November 1918 and is buried in Kirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery, Salonika. At the time of his death the battalion had recently found billets at Gugunchi after a long march in difficult terrain. The Regimental History records that "practically every man was suffering from either the present or after-effects of malaria." [Wood p.93]

Second Lieutenant Charles Harper, KSLI, was awarded the Victory and British War Medals.

[BMDs] DIED
[Bridgnorth Journal, Saturday 28th December, 1918]
HARPER. – On the 27th ult., of malaria and influenza, 2nd-Lieutenant Charles Harper, fourth son of Mr. and Mrs. John Harper, The Round Hill, Morville.