Harry was born in 1880 at Otley a son of Thomas and Mary Veal of that town. He took farming work and was employed there as a farm cattleman. At some time before 1911 he moved to Methley and at the age of 31 was recorded in the census of that year as a farmhand married of only one year to Edith Ella also of Otley aged 26.
The couple lived in a 3 roomed cottage at Woodend Methley and had a new baby under 1 month old recorded in the 1911 census.
He enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery and it was in their service that he suffered fatal wounds and passed away on the 13th June, 1918 his remains are buried in the Aire Communal Cemetery near St Omer.
A separate memorial headstone was placed in St Oswald’s churchyard following the sad loss of Mildred their eight year old child just thirteen months after the loss of her father in 1919 – ‘A Treasure in Heaven’.
Added to this tragic loss was that of mother Edith who died at the age of 42 in 1926, mother and daughter buried together and all three remembered on the one headstone. A memorial now only visible following the clearance efforts taking place in the churchyard.