SHORTLY after war was declared in 1914, Harry Baston marched with a group of fellow members of Witney’s Boys’ Brigade to the town’s Army recruitment office, to volunteer to serve their country.

The story came to light after Harry’s daughter and son-in-law, Shirley and John Lock, from Gloucester, shared their research with the Witney Gazette.

Harry was born in Witney in 1894 and left school aged 12, to work at Early’s blanket mill.

Harry, and his fellow Boys’ Brigade members, joined the ranks of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Retired bank manager Mr Lock, 75, said the group signing up to fight together was in the same vein as the so-called Pals’ Battalions, formed of men from big towns and cities.

He said: “It’s an interesting story, because a group of them as Boys Brigade members all went to enlist at the same time, which is quite something.

“They must have all decided to do their bit for their county and sign up together – it was all about camaraderie. You hear people saying that they looked upon their fellow soldiers as sort of brothers, and doing it to keep with their Boys’ Brigade colleagues means they would have been a band of brothers.”

After basic training, Harry and his friends were sent to the Western Front in France, where they first saw action in 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.

Mrs Lock, 80, remembers Harry saying the first of his friends to die was the tallest member of the Boys’ Brigade group, who fell victim to a sniper’s bullet when his helmet showed above a trench parapet.

Harry too would become one of Britain’s 420,000 casualties of the battle, when debris from a shell blast buried him alive.

But his life was saved when a friend saw his helmet sticking through the earth.

Witney Gazette:

Members of Witney Boys’ Brigade who joined up in 1914

Mr Lock said: “The Somme was a pretty grim affair. Harry was injured but saved when he was dug out, otherwise that would have been the end.

“But I think his experience typifies what it was like.”

Harry’s war in the trenches was over, as his injuries were considered too serious for further service at the front.

For the rest of the war he put his battle-hardened skills to use as an instructor, teaching new recruits how to survive when they were sent to the trenches.

After the war ended, he became a drummer in the dance band Jack Viner’s Troubadors, which led to him meeting his wife Ruth.

Mrs Lock said: “He met my mother at one of those dances. He winked at her and she winked back.”

The couple moved to Gloucester, to run the Oxford Guest House, in the 1930s, and lived there until Harry’s death in 1977.

Mrs Lock added: “He was a strong character and he used to tell me lots about his background.

“Obviously there were bad patches. It was an awful war and the conditions were very bad, but he liked to feel he had come through it. He was a brave man and a great character.”