Harold Mellor Vessey

Harold enlisted at Retford, and according to'Soldiers Died' he was formerly Tr/5/5690, 2Nd T.R. Battn, but on his M I Card he was first as No. 75649 of the Durham Light Infantry. He was then transferred to the Yorks Hussars (Alexandra Princess of Wales Own) 5th Battalion. His military adventures are unrecorded but going by his location of burial at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany and date of death, 13/10/1918, he almost certainly died as a Prisoner of War, due to harsh conditions. Pte Harold Mellor Vessey Retford Times 31 Jan 1919 Mr and Mrs J W Vessey, 43 Wharton Road, Newtown, Retford, received official information on Wednesday week, stating that their eldest son, Pte Harold Mellor Vessey, 5th Yorks, died in hospital at Langensalza, Germany on October 13th 1918 from pleurisy. The deceased, who was in his 39th year, was on the relief staff of the telegraph department of the Great Northern Railway Co. at Retford, and joined up in the spring of 1917. He was sent to France on February 26th 1919 and in the following July a letter was received from the York Record Office stating that he had been missing since May 27th. A comrade of the deceased in the same regiment, living at Leeds, who has also been a prisoner of war, has been seen by Mr and Mrs Vessey. He told them that Harold Vessey, who was a close companion of his, was taken prisoner at Caronnells unwounded and the two went to Ramicourt where he left Harold at the beginning of October looking as well as possible under the terrible conditions under which they were living. A C. F. has written to Mr and Mrs Vessey saying that their son succumbed to Pleurisy and was given a military funeral. Mr Vessey is a guard on the Great Central Railway and the deepest sympathy is felt for him and his wife in the great loss they have sustained

CWG additional information:- Son of John William and Sarah Vessey, of 43, Wharton St., Retford, Notts. Research by Colin Dannatt