A DROITWICH war hero is set to be honoured by having a housing development in the centre of town named after him.

Construction of new homes has begun on the site of the former Army Medals Offices in Worcester Road, where Bovis Homes is planning to build 64 new properties.

The firm is planning to name the site after Sergeant Edward Harrison, who received the Military Medal for bravery during the First World War, and want to track down his descendants and further information about him.

In seeking a name for the new development, marketing manager Heather Suffield discovered the story of the town soldier.

She said: “Whenever we go into a community to build homes we look to give the new development a name that reflects the area and its history.

“The land we are building on obviously has a military past and in researching the area I came across a document by local man Jon Winks that gave some background and biographies to the names on the town’s war memorial.”

One of the stories that stood out was that of Sergeant Harrison who was awarded the Military Medal for ‘conspicuous bravery and gallantry in the field’ in July 1917 and was killed in action in France the following month. There is an old memorial stone to him in Dodderhill church yard but no known grave.

“The team here thought it would be fitting to recognise the extraordinary bravery of this ordinary Droitwich man by calling the new development ‘Harrison Park’,” she added. “Now what we would like to do is find some local people who are related to Edward to let them know our intentions and perhaps have them take part in the opening ceremony.”

Edward Harrison, known as ‘Ted’, was born in Droitwich, the eldest son of John and Ada Harrison of 23 Albert Street. He worked as a brick layer for the Great Western Railway and played for Droitwich United football team. He enlisted in Birmingham in September 1914, joining the 9th South Staffordshire Battalion and died almost three years later aged 36.

If anyone is related to Mr Harrison, or has information about his descendants, they can contact Heather Suffield on 01675 437011.