Harry Potter Died a Hero in 1939

Posted by Christopher Eger Jul 21, 2007

Harry Potter died in combat. Not the gregarious spectacled youth of JK Rawlings novels, but the real life Harry Potter: British Army Private Harry Potter, service number 5251351.

Potter, who left seven brothers and sisters to join the army at age 16, was killed on the Hebron-Beersheba road near Jerusalem when his armored car was ambushed by Arabs on July 22, 1939. This was during the time when Britain policed what is now Jordan, Israel and Palestine under mandate of the failed League of Nations. Potters service book shows him at 5 foot four inches and 118 pounds, and lists his previous occupation in the carpet industry. He is buried in the Commonwealth Cemetery in the Israeli city of Ramla. Private Potter is just 1 of 16,838 British Commonwealth graves in Israel dating from 1917-1949. The grave has been popular since at least 2005 when it was the subject of a French article.

"Every day, tourists and visitors come wanting to see Harry's grave," the cemetery's custodian, Ibrahim Huri, told the paper.

"At first I didn't know why they were interested in this grave, but then I was told there were books and movies about him."

Harry’s unit, The Worcesters, was first raised in 1694 by Colonel Farmington as the 29th Foot Regiment, and was one of the oldest and most distinguished regiments in all of the British Army. It served in Holland, Gibraltar, North American (where it fought against those unruly Continentals at the Battle of Saratoga), Ireland, the Peninsula Campaign against Napoleon, India, and the horror of Flanders during the Great War. In the 1920s the regiment served in China and wound up at the Tower of London as a guard force in 1938. This would have been about the time that young Mr. Potter joined the regiment.

After leaving Palestine the regiment became fully involved in the brutality of world war two, being decimated at Dunkirk, fighting in North Africa and Western Europe. Postwar service in Malaya turned into Cold War cutbacks and the regiment was amalgamated with the Sherwood Foresters to form the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot), which serves today. It is currently garrisoned in London (home of the fictional Harry Potter) In August 2007, the regiment will be renamed as the 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters), before moving to Northern Ireland in 2008.