Current Information:

Age-22

7, Norris Street, Shoreditch

Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, France

40th Division, including 20th Middlesex of 121 Brigade, arrived in France in May 1916 and after a period of trench instruction took over the front line at Maroc, close to Loos. The Double Crassier and The Triangle were important features here and both had been fiercely contested during the Battle of Loos in 1915. On 20th August, 1916, 20th Middlesex moved into the front line here where they remained for a week. Early in the morning of 26th August some enemy soldiers were spotted near their wire and were dispersed by a couple of rifle grenades and Lewis gun fire. The Germans then sent up a green flare which was the signal for a bombardment by their artillery and trench mortars of the front and support trenches held by the battalion. A direct hit on a trench mortar put that out of action and there were a number of casualties among the ranks of 20th Middlesex, one of whom was Joseph Harris.