Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 183

W ORLD W AR II

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name JOHN MURRAY HARDING (Lt)

Lef SES 1939

Roll Number 3145 Died 29:08:1943

Set / House E

Arrive SES 1936

Where PEMBROKE DOCKS, WALES Serving with 13/18TH, ROYAL HUSSARS

Age 21

Buried Pembroke Dock Military Cemetery, South Wales Remembered Memorial Tablet at the site of the accident and The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial

Born in Chester 1922, the son of an Army Brigadier. A member of the 2nd Cricket XI, the Boxing team, and the Lower Science VIth. ‘He went to the Lower VIth after gaining his School Certificate; he played for the 2nd Cricket XI and was a good boxer. His reliability, popularity and sense of humour will always serve as an inspiration to all who knew him. He left earlier than most and put in much useful work which gained ‘general commendation as a Preparatory Master and as a Corporal in the Home Guard until he was old enough to join up’ (Chronicle). In 1941 he did indeed join up, with the Royal Armoured Corps and in 1942 was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 13th/18th Queen Mother’s Own Royal Hussars. A year later he was promoted to Lieutenant. He was killed in an sad accident, while on manoeuvres at Pembroke Docks in South Wales. Standing in the open hatch of his Sherman tank, the vehicle skidded on a hill, crashed into a low wall and overturned. Harding was killed instantly. He was buried, with full military honours, his parents present, in the Pembroke Dock Cemetery and is remembered on a small Memorial Tablet at the scene of the crash.