Harry Garner INKSON b. reg. Q3 1866 Docking Registration District, Norfolk

Harry Garner was the seventh child of Thomas Harborow b. 16 Dec 1834 and Martha [fifth to survive to adulthood]. His birth was registered in Q3 1866 and he was baptised on 16 Sep in All Saints church Burnham Sutton-cum-Ulph, Norfolk. He was the first child to be born in Burnham where Thomas Harborow was the station master for a long time. His exact date of birth is not known [curiously army records do not ask for a date of birth, perhaps to make it easier for the under-age to join up].

As far as we know, three of Thomas Harborow's children and grandchildren in total were killed in action : Harry Garner during the Boer War; Percy Inkson and Stanley George Dainty during the Great War.

At the time of the 1881 census Harry Garner, a 14 year old draper's assistant going by the name of 'Herbert', was living at 151 to 159 Tottenham Court Road, Marylebone, London. There was no know Herbert Inkson at this time and the age 14 matches with that of Harry Garner at the time of the census.

He enlisted into the Commissariat and Transport Corps on 19 Nov 1887, declaring himself to be a 19 year old clerk and telegrapher. He was, at least, persistent because on the enlistment form he declared that he was previously rejected by the army as being too short.

It looks as if he was made a corporal in 1891 and by July 1898 he was a sergeant. Just one year later he was promoted to Company Sergeant Major, not long before shipping out to South Africa. He died 7 May 1901 of an intestinal obstruction - whatever that means.

The remains of Harry Garner are buried in Braamfontein cemetery Johannesburg, South Africa :