CWGC thanks the Thiepval Database Project for this story. It summarises information held at the Thiepval Visitor Centre.
Harold was born on 24th December 1896 in Wheatley, Oxfordshire, one of the six children of John (a house painter) and Emily Tame, of Great Milton, Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
After leaving school he worked at the village bakery and was a bellringer at the village church.
He enlisted at Oxford.
His last letter to his mother, dated 14th July, included:
" …I am very pleased to hear that you have got some very young potatoes we had some out here the last day or two. Hope I shall soon be able to come home and help you out with them… and concluded with …I should be very pleased if you will send me some tea or cocoa and a bit of sugar. I must close now wishing to be remembered to all at Great Milton also dear old Phily. Hoping to be with you all again some time, love and best wishes from your loving son…"
Harold died on 30th July 1916, aged 19, during a a costly and unsuccessful attack on Guillemont Station. Zero hour for the attack was set for 4:45 a.m., which was already daylight. This lack of darkness contributed significantly to the operation's failure. B and C Companies were tasked with capturing Guillemont Station itself. The attack by B and C Companies was beaten back by intense German machine-gun fire. Because the station could not be secured, the supporting attack by A and D Companies also failed. The battalion was forced to withdraw without gaining their objectives. The regiment suffered heavy losses in the action, with records indicating approximately 14 officers and over 200 other ranks were killed, wounded, or missing. The attack on Guillemont Station is often cited as a tragic example of a daylight assault against entrenched machine-gun positions without sufficient cover or surprise.
One of the missing was Private, 22762, Harold John Tame, 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Pier and Face 10D of the Thiepval Memorial to |the Missing on The Somme in France.
He is also commemorated on the Great Milton Memorial.
His two brothers, Ernest and Arthur, visited the Thiepval Memorial in the 1930s.
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