Harris, Thomas
Lance Corporal
No. 9590, ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers
Killed in action on Monday 23 November 1914 (aged 26)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Le Touret Memorial, France (Panel 43)
Newtownards and District War Memorial
First Newtownards Presbyterian Church
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Harris was born on 28 December 1887 in Mill Street, Newtownards and he was a son of Thomas and Eleanor (Ellen) Harris (nee Welsh, sometimes Walsh) who were married on 12 July 1879 in First Newtownards Presbyterian Church.
The Harris family lived at 142 Mill Street, Newtownards.
Thomas Harris Senior worked as a general labourer and he and Ellen had seven children including:
Henry (born 5 December 1880 at Scrabo)
James (born 1882)
Agnes (born 9 June 1885 in Mill Street Newtownards)
Thomas (born 28 December 1887 in Mill Street Newtownards)
Andrew (born 17 April 1890 in Mill Street Newtownards)
Edward (born 8 April 1894 in Mill Street Newtownards)
Thomas Harris enlisted in Dundalk and he served with the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers.
Lance Corporal Thomas Harris was 26 when he was killed in action at Festubert in France on 23 November 1914 and he has no known grave.
Lance Corporal Thomas Harris is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial in France; on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in First Newtownards Presbyterian Church.
A year after his death his family placed an In Memoriam notice in the Newtownards Chronicle and it contained the verse:
No loved one stood around him
To hear his last farewell;
No parting kisses could he give
To those he loved so well.
We mourn the loss of our dear son,
So good, so kind, so brave;
Died on the battlefield of France,
Now lies in a hero’s grave.