Harry Hargreaves Simpkin

Harry was the middle of 3 sons and again like his Brother Arthur Wilson Simpkin also attended King Edward School, Bath and excelled at all sports, particularly at cricket.

Harry Hargreaves Simpkin – 13th Battalion. and

Captain Arthur Wilson Simpkin – 13th Battalion att’d 8th West Yorkshires.

Brothers Arthur and Harry Simpkin were both born in Midsummer Norton in Somerset.

The brothers joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps and first saw service with the Notts and Derbys regiment.

They served together with the 13th battalion and crossed from Southampton to Le Havre on June 6th 1916. The brothers saw action in the Loos and Lens sectors in 1916 and in early 1917 were engaged on the Somme. On November 23rd 1917 they were in action during the Cambrai offensive and took part in bitter fighting at the capture of Bourlon Wood and village.

When the German spring offensive opened in March 1918 the captains Simpkin were rushed up to Hamelincourt and from there into trenches east of St Leger.

At 7-00am on March 22nd Captain Harry Simpkin led “D” company into a bombing attack on the German line. They killed about twenty of the enemy and captured seven machine guns but within minutes some 300 Germans counter attacked and drove them off.

Captain Harry Hargreaves Simpkin was killed in this action on March 22nd 1918 aged 22 and his body lost is remembered today on the Arras Memorial.

After the loss of his brother Captain Arthur Simpkin served on with the 13th battalion and after the German offensive was stemmed next saw action during the Battle of the Lys in April of 1918.

While at St Momelin on May 3rd Arthur Simpkin learnt that the 13th battalion was to be disbanded and he joined some of the other officers at the base depot in Calais.

From here Captain Simpkin was attached to the 8th battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

At 6-30am on September 30th the 8th West Yorks were in trenches east of Masnieres and from here attacked the village of Seranvillers. Heavy fighting ensued and by the end of the day the battalion had only one officer left.

Captain Arthur Wilson Simpkin was killed in this action on September 30th 1918 at the age of 22.

His grave can be visited today at Ruyalcourt Military Cemetery six miles east of Bapaume.

Arthur and Harry Simpkin were the sons of John William and Emily Simpkin of Norton Royd, Woodkirk in Dewsbury.

Harry was born in 1895 in Midsomer Norton, Somerset and baptised there on 10th July 1895. His parents, John William Simpkin, a Mining Engineer from Drighlington, and Emily Wilson of Morley, had married on 16th August 1893 at St Peter’s Church, Morley. The couple then moved to Midsomer Norton where John had taken a job as an Instructor in Mining Engineering for the Somerset County Council. Their first child Arthur Wilson Simpkin had been born in 1894 and his parents took him back to their native Yorkshire for his baptism at St Peter’s Church in Morley on 15th July. Their third son Stanley Furness was baptised on 15th April 1898 in Midsomer Norton.

The three sons were privately educated at the King Edward School, Bath where they took a prominent and active part in cricket and the Officers Training Corps (OTC). The OTC had been formed by the Government in 1908 to address the shortage of officers and the junior division was based in the private schools.

Their father, John William, was one of six brothers and two sisters who lived with their parents, Jonathan Simpkin and Selena Hargreaves, at the Colliery House at Joan Royd Colliery, White Lee Road, Heckmondwike having lived first at Ferry Fryston, Yorkshire. Travers Simpkin, one of the six brothers of John William Simpkin, and uncle to Arthur, Harry and Stanley enrolled in the Honourable Artillery Company. He was killed on 3rd May 1917 aged 37.

Read more about Harry on the Spen Valley Historical Society website.