Story
Harry Gladstone Brown served as a Gunner in the Tank Corps, which had only recently been formed. A pork butcher by trade – though he also described himself as a general labourer – he was 18 when he attested, on 23 August 1916, to show he was willing to serve. Harry (whose middle name is sometimes recorded in Army records as George, not Gladstone) was mobilised on 15 February of the following year and posted to Chiseldon in Wiltshire. Brown was 18 years old when he enlisted. He stood 5ft 4ins tall, weighed nine stone and had a 35.5ins chest. His vision in both eyes was 6/9, his physical condition 'Good' and he was put in the category of A1… fit to serve on the front line. He named his dad, Alfred Jesse Brown, as his next of kin. Initially, Army records have his address as 35 East Street but, later, this was replaced with 27 Fish Street. We know that he was sent to France in late August 1917 with the Somerset Light Infantry and was transferred to the Tank Corps in December 1917. Private, later Gunner Brown trained at Bovington Camp, which was the main training centre for the newly-invented tanks in the war. His regimental number was 301615. In early 1918 he was back in France, having sailed from Portsmouth bound for Rouen, on the River Seine, on 3 February. His specialist military qualification was' Tank Gunner'. From 21st 1918 to the Armistice on 11 November, 2,400 men and officers in the Tank Corps became casualties but Gunner Brown was one of the lucky ones. After the war was over, Brown served in Germany with the Rhine Army – which implemented the occupation of the Rhineland. He was granted home leave on 23 December 1918, allowing him to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with his family – and was finally demobbed nearly a year later on 19 November 1919. Harry Gladstone Brown was born in Poole on 17 August 1898, the son of Alfred Jesse and Eva Sarah Brown, who had got married seven years before. The couple would have five children. In 1901, the year of the Census, Alfred worked as a claypit labourer. Harry had an elder brother, William who, in 1901, the year of the Census, was 20, worked as a compositor in the print industry. He also had another brother, Sidney Benjamin, who was two years older than Harry and a sister, Florence, who was seven years older than him. They lived as 17 Market Street and had not only a boarder living with them but also a female servant. Ten years later, in 1911, Harry, now 12, had two more brothers. Alfred Frederick was seven and Charles Richard a year younger. By now the Browns were living at 8 Lagland Street and father Alfred was employed as a labourer in the fish industry. Daughter Florence was still living at home and working as a domestic servant. Brother Sidney, 14, was also still living at home and was working as a packer at a tile factory. The Browns, by now, were living at 8 Lagland Street. From Harry's Army Service records we know that he worked as a butcher before the war, though he also described his occupation as general labourer. During the war years he must have been courting Florence May Chapman, who lived at 37 Lagland Street, for just over two months after he was demobbed, they got married. The ceremony took place on 24 January 1920 at St James Church in Poole. Harry was working as a foundry man, as was his father. Florence, whose own father, Tom Chapman, was a gasworks foreman who had been born on Branksea (today Brownsea) Island, was one of seven children, though sadly one had died. Florence was born on 21 November 1897. The Chapmans had been living at 16 Skinner Street in 1901, when Father Tom was a gasworks stoker, and in a place called Siege Terrace ten years later. Tom was still working at the gas works. Harry registered as an elector in 1918, under the name of Henry Brown, and was still registered in 1920, with the same name and address. By the time the Second World War began, Harry Gladstone and Florence Brown were living at 1a Avenue Place, Poole. Harry was a waterworks service layer. He died in the spring on 1979 at the age of 80.
Place of Service
Gunner, 13th Battalion, Tank Corps