Royal Air Force
Cyril George Harding was the second son of Francis Samuel and Florence Annie (née Jones), who lived at Church House, Stone, near Falfield. Francis was the respected headmaster of the Stone Church of England School.
Cyril was born at Stone on 24 June 1899. His elder brother Francis Percy had been knocked down and killed by a motor car in 1911 and his younger brother Roland John had died aged only a few months in 1901. Francis and Florence has therefore lost all three sons by the end of 1918.
After leaving school Cyril joined the Capital and Counties Bank and was employed in the Llandeilo Branch, Carmarthenshire.
It is probable that Cyril joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1917 and his record at the National Archives (AIR76/208/72) does indicate that this was on 14 November. On 19 December 1917 his record states that he was declared fit to become an observer but unfit to become a pilot.
After posting to various units he was at No 7 School of Military Aeronautics from 30 March 1918.
He must have applied for a commission as he was appointed Temporary Second Lieutenant on 12 July 1918 and on 21 July 1918 he was posted to the British Expeditionary Force pool in France.
He was subsequently assigned to 103 Squadron which had been based at Serny, northern France from June 1918 and was equipped with the DH9 long range day bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.
His record states that he was moved to a hospital in Boulogne on 8 October 1918 and transferred to England two days later. According to the Cheltenham Chronicle of 23 November 1918 he died (on 9 November 1918 aged 19) in a military hospital in the south of England from illness contracted whilst serving in France with the Royal Air Force (this having been formed by a merger of the RFC and Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918). He was aged 19. It is believed that the hospital was located in the Steyning/Horsham area of West Sussex.
Second Lieutenant Harding was buried with military honours in Stone (All Saints) churchyard, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 19 April 2018