On this day in Arlington history: October 23, 1890: Harry Vermillion is born. He will be one of several Arlington men to lose their life in World War I. Harry died on March 15, 1918.
Harry was born in Washington, DC but when he filled out his draft registration card on June 5, 1917, he was living in Cherrydale. He worked as a mechanic in the Signal Corps Laboratory in Washington which helped develop wireless radio communications and was a predecessor of today’s Naval Research Lab.
Harry shipped out for training at Camp Lee, near Petersburg, Virginia with 28 other draftees on November 1, 1917. Most of his unit consisted of men from the Shenandoah Valley and Tidewater area so his unit was nicknamed the Blue Ridge Division. But they departed for the European war theater in May 1918 without him. Harry died while in training at Camp Lee probably from what was then erroneously known as the “Spanish” influenza. Military training camps were breeding grounds for the disease and it was deadly in those days before antibiotics.
Harry’s funeral was held the Monday after his death at Epiphany Church in Cherrydale. According to a local newspaper account, “A large and sorrowful crowd gathered at the church.” On the flag-draped casket was a guitar and the newspaper noted that “no more on earth would they hear him play.” Harry was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
