HENRY EDWARD HARPER
Henry is not remembered on the war memorial at Christchurch Park.
Images courtesy of Julie Brason and Joan Brackenbury
TED
Born: 25th March 1915, Ipswich.
Died: 19th February 1942; age 26; lost at sea on board M.V. ‘Empire Comet.’
Residence: Ipswich.
Occupation: Warehouseman for a Grocer.
Rank: Gunner – Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships Gunner; Service Number: 1592911.
Regiment: Royal Artillery, 7/4 Maritime Regiment.
Memorial Reference:
Panel 77 Column 3.
Plymouth,
Devon.
Father: George Frederick Harper, born September 1866, Ipswich.
Mother: Jane Anne Harper (nee Cook), born 1875, Ipswich – died 1935, Ipswich. 
Henry with his niece, Daphne Grace Smy.
Ted, at the age of about 10 years, with his mother and sister
CENSUS
1921 27, Duke Street, Ipswich.
Henry was 6 years and 3 months old. He attended School and lived with his parents and sisters.
George Harper, 54 years & 9 months, a Waggon Fitter for Great Eastern Railways, at the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Dept., Croft Street, Ipswich.
Jane Harper, 46 years & 8 months old, Home Duties.
Mabel Evelyn Harper, 16 years & 10 months old, a Tobacco Parker for The Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland – A.C. Churchman, at Princes Street, Ipswich, born Ipswich.
Beatrice Ena Harper, 10 years & 1 month old, at School, born Ipswich.
Doris Grace Harper, 8 years & 2 months old, at School, born Ipswich.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939.
Henry was a Warehouseman – Grocer. He lived with his widowed father and sister at the family home – 27, Upper Barclay Street, Ipswich.
George, a retired Railway Carriage Fitter.
Doris, a Cigarette Machinist.
Henry’s parents – George and Jane Harper
In 1940, in Ipswich, Henry married Phyllis Rebecca Harris, a land worker – potato picker, born August 1920, Ipswich – daughter of Horace Harris, a general labourer, and Alice Harris (nee Webb), of 246, Landseer Road, Ipswich.
Phyllis and Henry had one daughter.
Henry’s father, George Harper in his front garden at Whitton. He was affectionately known as Dusty
19th February 1942
The ‘Empire Comet’ was a motor vessel (diesel), built in 1940, by Lithgows Ltd., Glasgow. She was placed under the management of Dodd, Thompson & Co. Ltd., London, for the Ministry of War Transport. Port of registry – Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was a Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship with 8 Royal Artillery Gunners providing protection. On the 7th February 1942, the ‘Empire Comet’ (Master Hector Rayment Willis) sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in Convoy HX 174 bound for Manchester, U.K. A few days into her journey, she became detached from the Convoy due to dense fog. On the 19th February 1942, the German U-boat, U-136 (Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Zimmerman), observed ‘Empire Comet’ for a couple of hours before firing at 22:17hrs and hitting her with two torpedoes, 33 miles north of the uninhabited granite islet, Rockall. She went down within 9 minutes, with her stern uppermost, followed by heavy detonations from below. All 38 members of the crew lost their lives. Henry was 1 of the 8 gunners lost. There were no survivors.
Ipswich man lost on the same ship and likely to have known each other: HERBERT COOK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/15/a2041615.shtml
2 Comments
Ted Harper was my grand mother’s brother. His mother’s maiden name was Cook.. (not Cock)
Thank you for the info concerning my great uncle’s demise. I’d only known he’d been lost at sea.
Hello Julie
I came across the Ipswich Memorial, I read your comment about Ted Harper being your grand mother’s brother.
I am the daughter (Joan) of Henry Edward Harper, I am now 84 years of age.
It would be nice if you did know more about other family, I used to visit my aunty Mabel and aunty Dot when I was young.