Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
237088Gnr. Harold Hulmes
British Army 208 Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery
from:Stockport
(d.17th Sep 1917)
Harold Hulmes was born in the Manchester district of Hulme and spent his early years there. He was the second son of Herbert, a dairyman and grocer, and Emma. His older brother was called Herbert after their father and would also serve in the army. By the time of the War, the family had moved to 114 Wellington Road South, Stockport and Harold was working locally for a firm of iron merchants Herbert Parkes and Nephew at their St Petersgate premises.Harold enlisted into the army at Stockport in October 1915 and was assigned to the artillery. His original unit was the 145th (Stockport) Heavy Battery, a Territorial unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery. His original service number was 4175 and he must have served with the Battery until at least early 1917, as his six-digit number was not issued until then and is one associated with the Battery. It is not known when or why he was transferred to the 208th Siege Battery although most transfers were as a result of a man being wounded or otherwise away from his unit due to sickness for a considerable while. When he was fit enough to return to duty, the new unit will have been in greater need of replacements.
The Siege Batteries fired the heaviest weapons in the British arsenal and were used to batter enemy strongpoints. In mid-September 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres had been under way for several weeks and Harold's Battery would have firing to support the infantry attacks. One of his comrades wrote home to tell Mr and Mrs Hulmes what had happened. The night that he volunteered to take the despatch, he was severely wounded and although in that condition he acted as only a true British hero would do for he delivered his despatch and was then admitted to hospital where he eventually passed away and was laid to rest beside his dead hero comrades.
The hospital that his comrade mentions will have been the Dressing Station at Reninghelst staffed by the Royal Army Medical Corps. It was situated a little way behind the front line. Its job was to do no more than patch a man up sufficiently to allow him to be further evacuated to a field hospital perhaps some 20 miles away. Clearly, there was nothing to be done for Harold.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.