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to view a picture of the person372.
Harold BURDETT was born on 30 Dec 1915 in Denby Dale, Yorkshire.
He was christened on 13 Feb 1916 in Primitive Methodist Church, Clayton West,
Yorkshire. Between 1941 and 1945 he was a Grenadier Guardsman in
Tunisia and Italy. Harold was in the 1st British Division and he
fought in Tunisia and then went to Naples, which he remembered as a dirty town.
He was captured during the campaign which began with the landings at Anzio Beach
on the 22 January 1944.
His battalion was tasked to move northwards. He was with the forward troops and,
when the order to retreat was given, a failure in communications meant that the
forward positions did not receive the information and carried on. The Germans
split the battalion in a pincer movement and he was captured with his comrades.
He was posted as “missing” from 9th February 1944 and then “missing
presumed dead”. He was a prisoner of war for 15 months . His wife went off
with another soldier. Nothing of her was ever spoken of again in the family.
Harold was alive and keen to escape. He finally got hold of a smuggled map (perhaps
in a Red Cross parcel?) and he escaped. He slept by day and walked by night.
Eventually he came to a river and swam across. He started to climb up the bank
on the far side and was met with the barrel of a gun. It was the Americans. He
was taken to Paris where he had to wait for transport home. He volunteered to
go home as quickly as possible and returned in May 1945 as “freight”
on a returning Lancaster bomber.
In 1946 he was a Driver in Martlesham Heath, Suffolk. He worked
at Martlesham Heath for his previous officer to whom he had been a batman. He
loved the driving job but the officer’s wife found excuses to deny him
time off with the car and he returned to Yorkshire to the woollen trade. In
1948 he was a Weaver in Graham and Potts Ltd., Kirkbridge and Lydgate Mills,
Huddersfield, Yorkshire. From Dec 1954 to Jan 1964 he was a Tuner/Loom
Overlooker in Workington, Cumberland. Between 1965 and 1974 he was
a Power Loom Tuner in Holmbridge, Yorkshire. Between 1974 and 1979
he was a Worker in the Stock Yard in Hepworth Pipe Company, Hepworth, Yorkshire.
He died of myocardial infarct on 9 Jul 2003 in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.
He was cremated on 15 Jul 2003 in Huddersfield Crematorium, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
His remains were interred on 30 Dec 2003 in Hade Edge Methodist Church, Hade
Edge, Yorkshire
Harold BURDETT and Freda HUDSON were married on 13 Sep 1941 in Cumberworth, Yorkshire. They were divorced on 12 Nov 1948 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Freda later married Clifford Green and they lived in Lindley, Huddersfield
Harold BURDETT
and Kathleen Mary LOCKWOOD were married on 28 Mar 1953 in Holmfirth Wesley Chapel,
Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Harold BURDETT and Kathleen
Mary LOCKWOOD had the following children:
+384 | i. | Clare BURDETT. |
