WELHAM, HARRY, Private, 10th (Reserve) Battalion Suffolk Regiment
Harry Welham was born in Lavenham, Suffolk in 1883, the eldest child of Harry Welham and Eliza Welham (nee Elliston). Harry’s father had been born in 1862; his mother c1865. They had married in Suffolk in 1883.
Harry’s ten siblings included Edgar Welham (born in 1887), Emily Welham (born in 1889), Alfred Welham (born in 1890), Willie Welham (born c1893), Bertha Elizabeth Welham (born in 1895), Maud Caroline Welham (born in 1897), Bertie Welham (born in 1899) and Charles Welham (born c1907). All were Lavenham-born. Two of the eleven children were to die before 1911.
The 1891 census recorded seven year-old Harry living with his parents and three younger siblings in Market Place, Lavenham. His father was a labourer, his mother a horse hair weaver. The entire household had been born at Lavenham. Ten years later the 1901 census found the Welhams at 39 Water Street in Lavenham. Harry, aged 17, was a bricklayer’s labourer. Seven siblings and his parents accompanied him, His father was an engine feeder.
Harry married Eliza Frankland in Suffolk in the summer of 1902. She had been born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire c1872. The couple had three children by 1911: Harry Welham (born in 1904 in Lavenham); John Welham (born in 1906 in Lavenham); and Violet Welham (born in 1910 at Alpheton in Suffolk).
In 1911 Harry was recorded by the census living with his wife and three children at Alpheton. He was a farm labourer.
Meanwhile his parents were still living, with give of his siblings, at 39 Water Street in Lavenham.
Harry enlisted at Sudbury, Suffolk and served with the 10th (Reserve) Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, one of the New Armies battalions that was formed in October 1914 in Felixstowe, Suffolk, from two recruit companies of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment.
Harry’s brother Alfred Welham was killed on 26th August 1914 while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment.
Harry died on 8th March 1915 while serving as Private 18168 in the 10th (Reserve) Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. He was aged 33. He is buried at Felixstowe (Walton) Cemetery in Suffolk.
Harry and his brother Alfred are both commemorated on the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford.
After the war their parents lived at Alpheton, Long Melford, Suffolk. Harry’s widow was listed by the register of electors for 1918 at 10 Phillips’ Cottages, in Springfield, while his brother Edgar was at 16 Phillips’ Cottages.
Harry’s mother died in 1925, aged 59.
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