Harold Vaughan Tattersall

Key Information

Name: Harold Vaughan Tattersall

DoB: June 27 1887. (Cranleigh school records say June 13)

Regt: N. Staffs. Regt., Lieut.

DoD: April 22 1918.

Academic Career:  CGS from April 1898; Cranleigh and University College London.

Biographical Information: son of H. V. Tattersall, Esq., 3 Eden Mount, Stanwix.

  • Family Background:

    Harold was born in Barnet, Herts., the son of Henry V Tattersall, a bank cashier, and his wife, Edith. He had an older sister, also Edith.

  • Academic Record:

    Harold was admitted to Carlisle grammar school in April 1898. He continued his education at Cranleigh School from Jan 1901 – March 1905. Whilst at Cranleigh he became Probationer Prefect, Secretary of the Science Society, Treasurer of the Debating Society, Meteorological Curate and a sergeant in the Rifle Corps. He was also educated at University College London where he gained his BSc (Hons)He passed inter. science in 1908 and took his B.Sc. in 1911. He was Vice-President of the Union Society in 1913-14. In December 1913 he was awarded his Rugby colours.

  • War Service:

    The following account of Harold’s war service comes from UCL records: “In August 1914, Tattersall applied for a commission and joined the Public School and University Corps. He was gazetted to the 11th North Staffordshire Regiment on November 23rd, 1914, and served on the Western Front. On March 21st,1918, during the German offensive, he found himself facing heavy odds; he collected a handful of men and was last seen fighting desperately, although seriously wounded. It was afterwards discovered that he died of wounds as a prisoner in German hands on April 22. He was buried at Halle, Saxony (Gertrude Cemetery).” Carlisle grammar school memorial register reports that he died in hospital at Halle. The Cumberland News reported he died when his regiment was engaged in the great German Offensive and that he made a “gallant resistance against the odds”. 

  • Battalion:

    Tattersall applied for a commission and joined the Public School and University Corps. He was gazetted to the 11th North Staffordshire Regiment on November 23 1914.

  • Other:

    The Cumberland News reports that Harold left a young widow.  His family choose the following to be inscribed on his gravestone ” Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end“.

  • Sources:

    a)The Carlisle Grammar School Memorial Register

    b) Census 1901 Rg13/620; 1891 Rg12/1055

    c) UCL Memorial Record

    d) CWGC

    e) www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.co.uk

    f) The Cumberland News July 6 1918