Harry Udall Gannett was born in the autumn of 1900, the second of four children to Charles and Clara. Charles was an agricultural labourer from Somerset, and it was here that the family were raised.

The 1901 census found Clara living with her brothers and two children in the village of Fivehead, while Charles was living and working just a few miles away in North Curry.

Charles passed away in 1906, aged just 48, leaving his widow to raise their now four children. The next census, in 1911, found Harry living in North Curry with his aunt and uncle, Francis and Emily Lee. Francis was noted as being a thatcher and hurdle maker. Harry’s mother was living elsewhere in the village with his three siblings. She was working as a farm labourer, while her brother, Russell, was also living there, helping support the family through his work, also as a hurdle maker.

Harry was keen to play his part when war broke out. His age initially prevented him from doing so, but he had enlisted by the late summer of 1918, joining the 53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. His service records are no longer available, but his unit was based at Rollestone Camp in Wiltshire, and this is likely where he was sent to be trained.

Little further information is available for Private Gannett. He contracted influenza while billeted in the cramped army barracks and died on 13th January 1919. He was just 18 years of age.

Harry Udall Gannett was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church in North Curry. His headstone reads “our dear nephew”, and it is likely that is was paid for by Francis and Emily Lee, the relatives who had taken him in after his father’s death.

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