Harry E. Harker
Private Harry E. Harker of Blackwood, New Jersey, was born June 18, 1911. He served in Company C, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, and was killed in action on April 20, 1944 during the defense of the Anzio beachhead in Italy.
- 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
Harry Harker was born June 18, 1911. In the early 1920s he lived at 934 Carpenter Street. By April 1930 he was living with his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Griffee, at 630 North 24th Street in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, 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, and went overseas in November of that year. He 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 his 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, New Jersey 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.
Beverly National Cemetery
Tag: harry-e-harker
Pvt. Harry Harker Funeral Tuesday
Camden Courier-Post obituary notice announcing funeral services for Pvt. Harry E. Harker of Blackwood, killed in action in Italy in 1944.
15 Dead, 2 Missing from South Jersey
The War Department's June 13, 1944 casualty list named fifteen South Jersey men killed and two missing, among them Corporal Stephen V. Koscianski of 966 Bulson Street, Camden — one of twelve on the list who had been lost with the troopship HMT Rohna in the Mediterranean seven months earlier.