Harry Eele was born in Thame in 1883, one of the nine children of William Eele and Emma (née Dorsett) living in Aylesbury Road.

He became a fellmonger dealing in sheepskins and in 1904 he married Alice Clara Attwell in Thame. They lived at 11 Wellington Street* where they had six children.

It is likely that Harry was conscripted in 1916 when the Military Service Act included married men. Initially he was posted with the Wiltshire Regiment, probably to the 2/4th Battalion who were serving in India.

He was then transferred to the 222nd Company of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) stationed on the North West Frontier area of what is now Pakistan. It was here, at Abbottabad, that Harry died from influenza on 6th November 1918.

He was 35 years old and one of the millions of deaths due to the 1918 worldwide pandemic. Harry was originally buried in Abbottabad Cemetery, India but after the partition of India in 1947 the grave was neglected and subsequently lost.

164282 Private Harry Eele, Machine Gun Corps, is now commemorated on Karachi War Memorial, Pakistan. He is remembered in Thame on the War Memorial and on the Memorial Boards of St Mary’s Church and All Saints’ Church.

*Note on address:

No 11 Wellington Street later became No 15, and following further renumbering in the 1970’s is now No 31 Wellington Street.