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:
“All my life I’ve been running, from welfare officers, thugs, my father. See, there they are [the killers]. There on the bridge. I’m a dead man. Nosseros told me that. He told me. He said, “You got it all, but you’re a dead man, Harry Fabian.””
—Jo Eisinger, and Jules Dassin. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark)
“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)