Harry E. Harker

Rank: Private, U.S. Army

Serial: 32755689

Unit: Company C, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: April 20, 1944

Burial: Plot D O 913, Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly, NJ

Awards: Purple Heart

Private Harry E. Harker of Blackwood NJ was born on June 18, 1911. In the early 1920s he lived at 934 Carpenter Street. As of April 1930, he was living with his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Griffee, at 630 North 24th Street in the Cramer Hill section of Camden NJ, and was still attending school. He had two younger brothers, Edwin and James, and a sister, Eleanore. At the time of the census, Mrs. Griffee’s brother-in-law Harry Griffee, a house painter and a widower, lived with the family, along with his son Thomas.

Inducted into the United States Army in March of 1943, he was assigned to Company C, 133rd Infantry Regiment, of the 34th Infantry Division. He went overseas in November of that year. Harry Harker was wounded early in 1944, as reported in the evening edition of the February 19, 1944 Camden Courier-Post. Private Harker lost his life in the service of our nation on April 20, 1944, during the defense of the Anzio beachhead in Italy.

After the war, Harry Harker was brought home. He was buried at Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly NJ on July 27, 1948. He was survived by his mother Mrs. Elizabeth Griffee, of Farrier Avenue, Blackwood NJ, and his wife Lillian V. Harker of 6 Beach Street, Blackwood NJ.

Mrs. Lillian Harker never remarried, and she now rests next to her soldier, finally reunited in September of 2000.