SILSDEN soldier Harry Wade should have been safe while he worked far from the frontline on May 4, 1917.

He was in his battalion’s camp near Arras repairing trenches and when the German shells fell. Private Wade was one of three men wounded in the attack, and he was the one to die from the injuries to his legs and arm.

His twin sister Minnie, also aged 23, will have been at home in South View Terrace when the army informed the parents about Harry’s death.

Harry was born in 1893 and joined his bootmaker father’s business in his teens. He enlisted in February 1916, and was deployed to France that June, surviving 11 months before being wounded during preparations for the Battle of Arras.

The Army first sent his parents a letter saying he had been taken to hospital with leg and arm injuries following the shelling.

Lieutenant Pratt wrote: “I hope that he will soon recover. He was back in camp and it was a great pity he was wounded when he ran so small a risk.”

Another letter arrived a couple of days afterwards informing the Wades that Harry had died.