HARRY WOTTON

On 7 August 1915, Lance Corporal Henry Ernest John Wotton was killed in action. Harry Wotton was one of seventeen children, his father being the manager of the New Zealand Soap and Candle Works in Belfast and an active member of the Belfast Patriotic Committee during the war. Before his enlistment on 16 August 1914, Harry worked in the office at the Belfast CFM works, and according to The Lyttelton Times “was well known in Christchurch and all the country townships, where his services were much in demand as a pianist for dances.” He sailed with the Main Body to Egypt and landed with his Canterbury Regiment in Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 2 June 1915 and was killed in the struggle for Chunuk Bair. He was twenty-six. Harry Wotton is commemorated on Chunuk Bair's New Zealand Memorial. His father Ernest chaired the committeee that organised the creation of the Belfast War Memorial in Sheldon Domain. Harry Wotton is also commemorated on the family grave in Belfast Cemetery.

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