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Pte. Joseph William "Joe" Harding
British Army 8th Battallion Durham Light Infantry
from:High Pittington
Joseph William Harding was born in High Pittington in May 1898. He joined the 8th Battalion DLI in April 1915 just before his seventeenth birthday. He was the youngest of six children, the other five being girls, so his early volunteering to fight was a great shock to the women in his life. He managed to survive the war but was wounded in March 1918 and was honourably discharged just before his 21st birthday in 1919. He lived a long and happy life mentioning his wartime memories often, but without going into any specific detail and always skirting around the horrific events he must have witnessed. He married Laura in 1924, they had a daughter, Monica, and two granddaughters. He lived most of the remainder of his life in Halifax, West Yorkshire, where he died in April 1981.
