Lieut.-Colonel Henry Arbuthnot CARR, D.S.O.

Commanded the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from 1919 to 1921.
Commanded the 8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from October 1916 to 1917.

Lieut.-Colonel "Harry" Carr joined the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment in 1893 and served with it continuously for 27 years in Malta, Bermuda, through the South African War, in Ceylon and India. He was Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion from 1903 to 1906. On promotion to Major in 1910, he was posted to the 4th Battalion in Bareilly and served in India and Burma until 1915, when he went with the Battalion to Gallipoli as part of the immortal 29th Division. There he was severely wounded and won the D.S.O. Later he served in France and Flanders with the 8th Battalion and was promoted Brevet Lieut.-Colonel for his services in 1918. In 1919 he was promoted Substantive Lieut.-Colonel and commanded his old battalion—the 2nd—in Dublin, until 1921, when he retired.
He was born in the Regiment, actually at Norton, where his father, who had served in and commanded the 36th, was commanding the old 29th Regimental District. His younger brother, Captain M. R. Carr, who was also in the Regiment, was killed when with the 2nd Battalion on the Aisne in 1914.

On the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 he was offered and immediately accepted a job in the War Office and in August, 1940, was placed in charge of the Forces Information Bureau in Trafalgar Square, a branch of Eastern Command and London District Welfare. His office was a specially built brick building at the Thames side of the Square, close to the fountains, and became a well-known landmark of war-time London. To it came men and women of all nationalities and services, and its work ranged from the tragic, in helping to trace families and relatives "blitzed" out of their homes or killed in air raids, to enquiries from Commonwealth and American Forces about historic places of interest and entertainment, and how best to spend their leaves in Great Britain.

Lieut.-Colonel H. A. Carr

Colonel Carr delighted in his work at this centre and the personal contact it brought him with thousands of Servicemen and women, particularly those from overseas. Although the building was several times damaged in raids, the office was never closed and Colonel Carr hardly spent more than a night or two away from London during the whole war. The Bureau was closed down in the Autumn of 1945.

In 1946 he returned to his native county, Northumberland. Despite living so far away from Worcestershire, however, he took a great interest in everything to do with the Regiment and the Service, and, in fact, only two or three days before his death, whilst in hospital, he asked whether his copy of "Firm" (Regimental Magazine) had arrived and was delighted when it did. It was probably the last thing he ever read.

There are probably very few officers who have served under four different Sovereigns and who could add, as Colonel Carr did, the 1939-45 Defence Medal to those of the South African War.

With him the Regiment always came first, he loved it and all that its traditions stood for. A keen sportsman and polo player, Colonel Carr was much liked and looked up to by all who served with him.

Colonel Carr died on the 22nd January 1951, at home, Otterburn, Northumberland, age 78.

 

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