Harry Paton – Gordon Highlanders, 1st Battalion

Private Harry Paton – Gordon Highlanders, 1^st Battalion

Commemoration

Harry Paton

Another name commemorated on the Mumbles War Memorial, about whom only limited personal information is known, is Private Harry Paton.

Birth and Family

Harry Paton was born in Norwood, Middlesex. He married Mary Evans in 1915, shortly before his military service overseas.

Military Service

Private Harry Paton served with the 1^st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, which formed part of 8th Brigade, 3rd Division of the British Army.

1^st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders – September 1915

On 25^th September 1915, the 1st Battalion was engaged in the opening day of the Battle of Loos, one of the largest British offensives of the First World War. The attack followed a prolonged artillery bombardment and the British Army’s first large-scale use of poison gas, which proved unreliable due to shifting winds and in some places caused confusion and casualties among British troops.

The battalion advanced across open ground against heavily defended German positions. The men were met with intense machine-gun and rifle fire, as well as heavy artillery bombardment. Despite severe losses, the Gordon Highlanders succeeded in capturing sections of the enemy trench system. Fighting was fierce and often at close quarters, with hand-to-hand combat taking place in trenches and strongpoints.

Throughout the day the battalion suffered heavy casualties, both during the initial advance and while holding newly captured positions under sustained enemy counter-attacks. Many soldiers were killed or wounded, and in the chaos of battle numerous bodies could not be recovered, resulting in many men having no known grave.

Death and Commemoration

Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects

Harry Paton 
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
credit - findagrave

According to the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, Private Harry Paton was killed in action on 25^th  September 1915, during the opening day of the Battle of Loos. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium, which honours officers and men who died in the fighting in France and Flanders and whose burial places are unknown.