Person

William Edward Harker was born on 26 June 1883 and baptised a month later in St Cuthbert’s Church in Darlington. He was the second son of William senior and Jane Harker who had a total of eight children, although one child did not survive past childhood. William Edward grew up in Darlington where his father worked as an engineman in the Coniscliffe Road Waterworks. By 1901, aged 17, William was working as a horseman just along the road at Tees Grange Farm. In March 1907 he travelled aboard the SS Empress of Ireland sailing from Liverpool to New Brunswick, Canada with the intention of travelling to Manitoba to join his older brother John and family.

He settled in Griswold, Manitoba and found work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as a track construction foreman. On 2 March 1916 he enlisted with the 2nd Field Troop Canadian Engineers at Winnipeg and became Sapper 504089 in the 14th Field Company. Two months later at the end of May he arrived back in Liverpool having sailed with the 14th Field Company aboard the SS Baltic. He was posted to Bramshott Camp, Hampshire where he transferred to the 10th Field Company, 4th Divisional Engineers. William began his service in France in the summer of 1916, disembarking in Havre on 12 August.

In December 1917 William became ill suffering from what was initially diagnosed as influenza. Later records have his diagnosis listed as trench fever. He was treated at the 11th Canadian Field Ambulance at Ablain St. Nazarre from 21 December. A week later he was transferred to the No. 2 Stationary Hospital in Abbeville. William remained unwell and was invalided to England on the Hospital Ship Essequibo on 10 January 1918. He initially received treatment at the 2nd West General Hospital in Cardiff before being admitted to the Epsom Convalescence Hospital. William was finally discharged from hospital on 18 March 1918.

A report from a medical board on 23 May 1918 gives us a detailed insight into William’s illness and the longer term effects from it. Myalgia and varicose veins are listed which William reported had both begun following him suffering with trench fever. William describes the pain he was suffering in his thighs and left leg which was particularly bad at night. To aid with this pain hydro-electric therapy was proposed.

Posted to the Canadian Engineers Pool, William returned to his old unit, now renamed as the 10th Battalion Canadian Engineers. He joined them at Caix, France on 12 August 1918, where a month later he was promoted to corporal. After two weeks leave in England in March 1919 he returned to France, only to return to England in April when the 10th Battalion was posted to Bramshott pending their return to Canada. The Battalion returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, sailing on the SS Olympic from Southampton in the spring of 1919 and the men were demobilised in Toronto on 17 June.

Post-war, William joined his brother John at Westville, Nova Scotia, a mining community in Pictou County. The 1921 census showed him staying with his brother on Acadia Avenue in Westville where he remained for the rest of his life. In December 1927 William came back to England to see his mother, returning to Canada three months later.

William never married and worked as a section man on the railways until 1953. He died ten years after he retired on 4 May 1963 and is buried at Heatherdale Gardens at Westville.

Civil Parish: Darlington

Birth date: 26-Jun-1883

Death date: 5-May-1963

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Conniscliffe Road, Jubilee Cottage, Darlington (1891 Census)
Griswold, Manitoba (Service Records)
Acadia Avenue, Westville, Pictou County, Nova Scotia (1921 Canadian census)

Religion: Church of England

Employment: Horseman (1901 Census)
Railway Construction (Service Records)

Family: Parents: William Harker, Jane Harker nee Tweddle
Siblings: John G Harker, Margaret A Harker, Tom Harker, Arthur Harker, Jane Harker, Walter R Harker

Military service:

2nd Field Troop Canadian Engineers
10th Field Company Canadian Engineers
10th Battalion Canadian Engineers
Service number 504089
Corporal

Gender: Male

Contributed by swejk, darlington | Victoria Oxberry - published 17-Apr-2019