Harry joined the army before the war started. He went in at aged 16 because his father and remarried and Harry did not have a good relationship with his step-mother.

She forced him to stop going to school and pushed him out to get a job, so he joined the military.

Harry often felt as though his birth mother was looking over him, particularly on three occasions where he felt as though she was there, giving him guidance.

On the first occasion, he was on a troop train with his friends who were in a different carriage. He went to join them and had a cigarette in their company before suddenly feeling as though he should leave. He went back to his carriage moments before the last carriage, with his friends in it, blew up.

In 1919, hew as on a lorry in Ireland and holding onto the tarpaulin support to assist with balance. He had a feeling that he should bring his arm in, did so and within seconds the support was completely crushed, as would his arm have been had he left it.

He got shot in the thigh when going over the top and was taken to the medical centre. They told him they had no anaesthetic but that the bullet had to come out or he would lose his leg. They gave him a plank of wood to bit down on, half a bottle of scotch for the pain and did the surgery with a penknife.

He would often cut the hair of the other boys in the trenches when it got too long despite no training.

He suffered from pain in his legs for the rest of his life from standing knee deep in water in the trenches for days on end.