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Husband of Flossie Emmeline Heydennych (formerly Harber), of 14, Love St., South End, Port Elizabeth, Cape Province. Born Lydenburg, Transvaal November 1895. A blacksmith. Enlisted in the 3rd S.A.I., South African Expeditionary Forces in April 1917, stating previous service in the 5th S.A.M.R. [in German South-West Africa]. Tall for the age, standing at over 6 feet, he was an obvious choice for the South African Tug of War Team at the Aldershot Military Fete on 25 August 1917, an event witnessed by Queen Mary. Harber arrived in France in October 1917 and was re-posted from the 3rd to the 1st S.A.I. in February 1918. Advanced to Corporal in the following month, he was killed in action, when an entire South African Brigade was all but wiped out by the advancing Germans. As noted in the official history, even enemy accounts of the fighting this day comment on the extreme gallantry of their South African foes, one German historian stating that 'during the afternoon the 357th and 237th Reserve Regiments captured Marrieres Wood and the hill at Prez Farm, in spite of the heroic and desperate defense of the almost completely destroyed South African Brigade.' Certainly the trenches were found to be full of dead from bayonet and hand-grenade wounds, prompting another German historian to observe that no better proof of 'bitter hand to hand fighting' existed. |
