Corporal Harry Edward Shenton

Submitted by: Rex Passion

Corporal Harry Edward Shenton served in World War One with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known April 18, 1917 to May 16, 1919.

 

Harry Edward Shenton served in Company B, 103rd Engineers of the Pennsylvania National Guard from the beginning of the U. S. involvement until the war’s end. His unit was attached to the 28th Division and Corporal Shenton built defensive works on the Marne at Charly sur Marne, fought in support of the 109th infantry at St. Agnan in the breakout of July 15th, built bridges under fire at the Battle of Fismes, built roads in the Muse Argonne and fought in support of the 111th infantry at Chene Tondu. They were preparing to cut the German wire at St. Louis Farm in the Thiaucort Sector when the war came to an end.

Ed Shenton was an art student when war was declared and promptly joined the engineers. He was in the habit of drawing every day and continued this routine throughout his training and his service overseas. When he returned home, no one was interested in his stories or his drawings so he put his sketchbooks away and went back to art school. He had a fifty-year-long career and became one of the major book and magazine illustrators of his day.

His son, and my friend, Ned Shenton, discovered his father’s wartime sketches ninety years after they were put away. The Lost Sketchbooks: A Young Artist in The Great War presents Ed Shenton story illustrated with over 150 of his own drawings. It is available from Amazon or from www.thelostsketchbooks.com.