Private John Harvey

Private John Harvey, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed by shellfire in Belgium on the 30th June 1916. He had been born at Beal and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey of Smeafield Station, Belford and is buried in La Laiterie Military Cemetery, Kemmel, Flanders, Belgium. He had enlisted on 4th September 1914 but due to appendicitis he did not join his Battalion in France until the Autumn of 1915. On that date the Battalion were in front line trenches and were bombarded by minenwerfers ( large trench mortars ) 1 Officer and 3 other Ranks were killed and 8 wounded. The regimental chaplain wrote to his parents and spoke of him in glowing terms. They also received a letter from his younger brother Private W. Harvey who served in the same Battalion. After the War an impressive Memorial was raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where the Division had fought its first action of the War on the 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.