HARRY OPIE
1887 – 1953
Harry was born in Moretonhampstead in 1887 to John Kerslake Opie and Emma Heale. He had one elder brother Ernest.
Harry’s father died when he was four years of age and he lived with his widowed mother in Moretonhampstead and Abbotskerswell until his mother died. In the 1911 Census Harry is recorded as living with his brother Ernest in Poundsgate and working as a farm labourer.
Harry enlisted for Military Service in December 1915 and was placed in the Training Reserve. In August 1917 Harry was “called to Colours” and went to serve with the Hampshire Regiment. He was however transferred to the Labour Corps serving on the Western Front with Labour Companies 303rd and 408th.
Harry continued with the Labour Corps after the signing of the Armistice in 1918, and for a while was stationed in Cologne in Germany guarding “British interests” he was finally demobbed in October 1919.
He returned to Poundsgate, and later moved to Dunstone to continue living with his brother Ernest and Ernest’s wife Louisa.
Harry remained a single man until his death in 1953 aged 66.
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