American Overseas Memorial Day Association - Belgium - PRIVATE FIRST CLASS HARRY ARTHUR KING

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS HARRY ARTHUR KING
Troop F, 3rd Cavalry

Pfc. Harry King was a native of Wichnar Park in Staffordshire England. His parents were John and Susan King, and they lived at 65 Belgrave Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. Before the war, Harry and his brothers Reginald and George emigrated to America, leaving their parents behind. When the war broke out, Reginald joined the Canadian Army and became a Sapper in the 10th Battalion Canadian Railway troops. Harry joined the US Army and was assigned to the 3rd Cavalry’s F Troop. Their brother George remained in New York City where he owned a tailor shop.

When the US entered the war in 1917, the Third Cavalry was one of the few standing forces available. Consequently, it was one of the earlier units to be sent to Europe, arriving in France in November of 1917. Although horse-mounted cavalry was useless in the trenches of the First World War, horses did play a crucial role in transporting supplies, weapons, and ammunition to the front. The 3rd Cavalry spent the war taking care of those horses. Harry’s F Troop ran a remount depot for quartermaster and artillery units near Bourbonne-les-Bains in the Haute Marne region of France.

The Western Front was a dangerous place, even for those who did not serve in combat roles. The unsanitary conditions of the trenches were breeding places for disease. In fact, more American soldiers were killed by disease in the First World War than were killed in combat. Harry King was one of them. He died of bronchial pneumonia on 20 September 1918 and was initially buried at the Argonne American cemetery at Romange-sous-Montfaucon.

Harry’s mother Susan initially requested that his remains be sent to England to be buried beside his father at Checkley. However, Harry’s brother Reggie was badly wounded in combat near Ieper on 17 October 1917. Reggie eventually died of his wounds on 18 January 1918 at the age of 23 and was buried in the Lijssenthoek Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. Unlike the practice in the US Army, the remains of soldiers who died in the service of the British Empire could not be repatriated. When Mrs. King learned that Lijssenthoek was to be her son Reggie’s final resting place, she changed her mind about her son Harry’s burial. She requested that Harry be buried near his brother Reggie at Lijssenthoek. His remains were moved to Lijssenthoek in October of 1921.

Mrs. King had the following inscription carved into Harry’s tombstone: “Best of Sons and Brothers, Also Reggie Buried Close By.” Back in Staffordshire, Harry and Reggie’s names are forever commemorated on a war memorial plaque on the outside the wall of The Resurrection’s Church.