Harold Lawton

Who was Harold Lawton?

Professor Harold Walter Lawton was an English scholar of French literature and, prior to his death, one of the last surviving veterans and the last prisoner of war of World War I in Britain.

Lawton was born in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England. He volunteered for military service in 1916, enlisting with Royal Welch Fusiliers before being transferred to the Cheshire Regiment. Upon completing training, in 1917 he was posted to the Western Front where he was transferred again, to The East Yorkshire Regiment. During the German Spring Offensive of 1918 his unit, the 1/4th Battalion the East Yorkshires, was sent to reinforce the line at Béthune. The Germans used infiltration tactics, where stormtroopers aimed to infiltrate weak points in defences, bypassing strongly held front line areas. Troops with heavier weapons would then attack the isolated strongpoints. Lawton, with troops from the Durham Light Infantry, did indeed become isolated in a forward trench during the assault; when they ran out of ammunition and food after three days' fighting, they surrendered. He was imprisoned at a prisoner of war camp at a fort in Lille and afterwards in Minden, Germany.