"To Keep in Memory"

Harold Morritt

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.

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.

The grave of Pte Harold Morritt.