THE story of a Wilton soldier, who died 100 years ago this weekend while serving in the First World War, has been discovered by a Wiltshire councillor.

Harold Harding’s story has been retold by Cllr Horace Prickett who laid a wreath at his grave following a trip to Charenton-le-Pont, the Paris suburb twinned with Towbridge.

He said: “I was on an official trip with the council to France. Some local dignitaries had asked me to come to a local war cemetery, and knowing that I was from Wiltshire, they asked me to lay a wreath on a grave.

“It was an extremely moving experience and when I got back home I decided to do some more research into the soldier who was Harold Harding.

“I found out that he was from Wilton and had fought with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the very early days of the war to defend Paris from a German invasion.”

Cllr Prickett’s research into census data found that Mr Harding, who was 23, fought with the 4th Brigade of the BEF during the first battle of Mons in Belgium on August 17, 1914.

Following defeat to the Germans in Mons the BEF fought a valiant rearguard action as they were pursued all the way to the French capital.

Cllr Prickett continued: “The men did so much marching that they wore the soles off their boots.

“At times they marched up to 48 hours with just two hours rest whilst all the time fighting the Germans.”

In the end the BEF managed to stop the German advance at Paris then push them back towards the French city of Riems, where the two sides dug in for four years of bloody conflict.

“It was around the time when the BEF started to push the Germans back that Harold was wounded, he was taken to hospital at Charenton-le-Pont but died on September 28 of his injuries,” Cllr Prickett said.

Mr Harding was buried in St Maurice Communal Cemetery, Val de Marne, surrounded by French war dead and is believed to be the only British soldier at the cemetery.

He continued: “It is an important story because without the fighting that Harold and the other soldiers had done, Paris might have fallen to the Germans. The Kaiser already had his victory parade planned.”