Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Henry Whitmore, a boot manufacturer, born on the 27th November 1865 in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire and his wife Laura Ellen Whitmore (nee Frost, married in August 1894 in the Swalcliffe, Oxfordshire district), born on the 6th October 1865 in Little Bourton, Oxfordshire. Harry Maurice was born in the 2nd quarter of 1897 in Earl Shilton and was baptised on the 11th July 1897 in the Parish Church, Earl Shilton, he had one sibling, Kathleen Annie, born on the 15th May 1898 in Earl Shilton and baptised on the 10th July 1898 in the Parish Church, Earl Shilton, in March 1901 the family home was at 10, Oxford Street, Earl Shilton. In April 1911 Harry was residing in the family home at Station Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire, together with his father, a boot manufacturer, his mother and siblings, Kathleen and Muriel, born on the 4th October 1901 in Earl Shilton and baptised on the 10th November 1901 in the Parish Church, Earl Shilton.
Harry’s Army enlistment documents do not survive, all that is known of his military service is that he enlisted into the Leicestershire Regiment, being allotted the service number 30425, and was posted as a Private to the 7th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment and it was with this unit that he first entered the theatre of war in France on a date unknown, but it would have been after the 31st December 1915. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
The War Diary records: 9 May-17. BOIRY BECQUERELLE. Casualties 2nd Lieutenant. C. FRANCIS accidentally wounded, 1 other rank killed in action, 3 wounded in action.