View source for Chaplain Wilfred John Harding aged 31


=== Chaplain Wilfred John Harding aged 31 ===
Wilfred Harding was born in Battersea, London on 2nd December 1885 and was educated at St Paul's School, Hammersmith and Christ's College Cambridge. He was Curate at St Mary’s Luddenden from 1912 to 1914 and enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps on 17th October 1914. For a short while in the early 1900’s he was based in Luddenden. He married Mary Riley of Luddenden in May 1916. She was the daughter of RT Riley of Thorn Bank, a local mill owner. He was gazetted Chaplain to HM Forces on 29th May 1917 and was Captain Chaplain attached to the Drake Battalion Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was killed in action at Passchendaele while stretcher-bearing during heavy fighting on 31st October 1917 He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium. He was awarded the Military Cross on 18 January 1918 for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty; continual tending of the wounded during four days’ operations and repeatedly crossing No Man’s Land under heavy fire to carry them to the front line” The Lieutenant-Commander of the Drake Battalion wrote: The work for which [he] was awarded the MC was as follows: Stretcher-bearers had each case to carry over 2 miles over the most impossible ground before reaching a road or ambulance. [He] insisted on going into "No Man's Land" with the stretcher-bearers in search of wounded men under the most intense fire and in broad daylight, when he was exposed without cover of any kind, regardless of his own safety so long as he could be a comfort or of use to any of the wounded. Everyone was loud in his praises. It was just behind the line, while returning, that he was killed. No man could have done his duty more nobly than he has done since joining this battalion. He was always with the men, early and late, and in front of the forward posts. He was a great favourite among all ranks, always cheerful and self-denying under all conditions, and his devotion to duty was an example to us all. No M.C. was ever more thoroughly earned. The Senior Chaplain of the Division wrote: For over two years, Capt. Harding had been a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps at the base, but his heart was at the front, for he followed the Drake Battn. to which he was attached, all through their wanderings into the trenches and back again. On his own initiative, he got a little 'dug-out' made in the 'Red Line' and set it apart as a church and reading-room, in memory of gallant comrades. When the Brigade moved, and sections of the men were set apart as stretcher-bearers, during a 'push' he immediately joined one of the squads, and whilst engaged in this work, a shell pitched amidst his squad and killed him. He was a general favourite and a splendid example. Such a capable, brave and experienced Chaplain is hard to replace. All who knew him found in him the man and padre.

His body is buried near the spot where he laid down his life whilst serving his comrades.