Roll of Honour

Harold was lost on the steamship Hildawell when she struck a mine off Sunderland while en route from Bilboa to Sunderland carrying iron ore.

Harold Rowlands was born in Yarm in 1883. He was baptised at Yarm on the 18^th November, 1883, the son of Jonathan Edward Rowlands, a painter, and Hannah Mary Raper.
Jonathan and Hannah married in the June quarter of 1883, in the Stokesley registration district. Interestingly, their names are both listed on the same page of the Yarm Baptist records. 

Hannah died in 1883, aged 23 and was buried at Yarm on the December 1st, 1883.  Jonathan remarried on the 27^th June, 1889, at St. Paul ’s, Thornton Heath, Surrey, and went on to have more children.

On the 1891 Census for No.2, Workhouse Street, Stockton-on-Tees, Harold is shown as a visitor, aged 7 and born in Yarm. The head of the family is one James W. Rowland, a plumber born in Darlington. James was a brother of Jonathan Edward Rowlands and uncle to Harold.

On July 22nd, 1903, Harold (recorded as a Sailor), married Ruth Ann Barker at St. James' Parish Church, West Hartlepool, both listed as residing at No.25, Adelaide Street, West Hartlepool.

The 1911 Census shows Harold (a shipyard labourer), and Ruth living at No.12, Back Alfred Street, West Hartlepool, with three children, Mary Ann (or Annie, aged 6), Ruth (4), and Harold (1), and a Boarder named John McKilligan, from Glasgow. Another son, George Alfred Rowlands was born in 1913.

The Northern Daily Mail dated 14^th November, 1932, records the unveiling of a permanent Roll of Honour at Burbank Methodist Church, to members who fell in the Great War. The list of names includes Harold Rowlands. His daughter Mary Annie had married there the previous year (6^th April, 1931) to William Beckwith.

At the time of Harold's death, his family are recorded as residing in Bowser Street, West Hartlepool.