Private Harold Ogden
260119 8th Border Regiment
Born 1898 in Manchester
Killed in Action 13th July 1917, aged 19
Lived at 59 Cleaver Street
Buried in Belgian Battery Corner Cemetery, Belgium I.E.20
Burnley Express 28th July 1917

Son of Mr & Mrs. Ogden of 59 Cleaver Street, Burnley, Lancashire
Harold was aged 19, formerly a weaver at Alderman Emmott’s Stanley Mill, he attended the Unitarian Mission, Ivy Street, attending the art classes at the Technical School and had obtained a studentship for another year, and also he was a member of the Y.M.C.A Scouts Band.
Private Ogden enlisted on June the 2nd 1916 and went out overseas on June 10th of 1917, for his Army work he had two badges as a sniper and scout and had become a Lewis Gunner.
His parents received a letter dated July 15th 1917 saying; “It is with very great sorrow that I have to communicate to you the death of your son. He had been in my platoon only a very short time. He had proved himself a good soldier and was keen to do all he could, so I put him on a responsible job, that of a Lewis gunner. I am sure it will relieve your sorrow slightly to know that death was instantaneous, and that our own chaplain buried him. Please accept the heartfelt sympathy of the men, N.C.O.s and myself, he was killed by a shell.

(Courtesy of Andrew Mackay)