Baxenden Lads: Johnson H

PTE. 10450 HARRY JOHNSON
26th October 1918

PTE. 10450 HARRY JOHNSON of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment died of pneumonia on October 26th 1918. He was twenty nine years old and lived with his parents James and Alice Johnson at 482 Manchester Road, Baxenden.

Nothing is known of the circumstances of Harry’s death, but it is probable he succumbed in the influenza epidemic which swept Europe in 1918 and 1919. Many soldiers died of influenza or pneumonia because battlefield wounds and service in the trenches weakened their health and resistance.

Harry died in the 2,000 bed Norfolk War Hospital at Thorpe, near Norwich. His parents, as was their right, brought him home to be buried in St. John’s Churchyard, Baxenden. He is, alone of the thirty six World War One casualties named on the War Memorial, in a family grave, not a war grave. His father James died in 1922, his mother Alice in 1931, and are buried with him.