Private Joseph Henry Silk GC (14 August 1916 – 4 December 1943), known as Harry Silk, of the Somerset Light Infantry was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his heroic self sacrifice while serving in Burma. He threw himself on an accidentally triggered grenade to save his comrades from the explosion which killed him instantly.
Notice of his award appeared in the London Gazette on 13 June 1944.
Famous quotes containing the words harry and/or silk:
“Why don’t you go home to your wife? I’ll tell you what. I’ll go home to your wife and outside of the improvements, you’ll never know the difference. Pull over to the side of the road there and let me see your marriage license.”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made to Huxley College’s outgoing president (1932)
“O bid me mount and sail up there
Amid the cloudy wrack,
For Peg and Meg and Paris’ love
That had so straight a back,
Are gone away, and some that stay
Have changed their silk for sack.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)