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49050 RIFLEMAN HAROLD MORRITT 2/7th
(Leeds Rifles) Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment.
Died
of Wounds, 12th April 1918. Aged 35 years.
Buried
in Bienvillers Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. Plot IX, Row C, Grave 14.

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| The badge of the 7th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment |
Harold Morritt was the youngest of 7 children born to the marriage of George Morritt, a Colliery Banksman
employed by the Garforth Colliery Company, and Alice Harrison Pinder. The couple produced five daughters and two sons and
these were Charlotte (b. 1865), Jane (b.1868), Harriet (b.1870), Ellen (b. 1873), Willie (b. 1876), Frances (b. 1878), and
finally, Harold (b. 1883). The family lived at Pear Tree Cottages, on Town Street, which is now Main Street, however by 1901
they had moved the short distance into Chapel Lane.
Unlike his father and brother, Harold did not become a Banksman at the colliery; he served an apprenticeship
in Joinery. By the time he married Elizabeth Stead at the Parish church of All Saints in Barwick in 1909 he had served his
time and was working as a Joiner, and it would appear from the 1911 Census that his joinery kept him employed in the building
trade rather than in the colliery.

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| The Morritt Family grave in the Churchyard of All Saints' Church in Barwick |
Harold and Elizabeth had three children together. Their eldest daughter, Doris was born in 1911, less than
a month before the census for that year was taken and she was still awaiting a first name according to that document. Five
years later, twins George and Hilda were born. At this time the family was living in Elmet Cottage in Barwick in Elmet.
Harold Morritt’s service
number is indicative of a man called up for service in June of 1917.

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| The grave of Pte Harold Morritt. |
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