Harry was born to Samuel and Emma Craddock in the winter of 1889 in Cradley Heath, Worcestershire.
His seven brothers and two sisters lived with their mother and father in a three room house at 23 New Village in the Black Country, now an area of Dudley.
After his father contracted tuberculosis the family moved to a smaller house in Mushroom Green.
When Harry was aged 10, his father died.
His brother and sister with her husband moved to Co. Durham and following in his father's and elder brothers' footsteps Harry became a coal miner.
At the turn of the century, his brother, James, and his newly married sister and her husband, moved from the Black country to Merrington Lane nr. Spennymoor in Co Durham. Harry later followed them and lived at Post Office Lane.
Why did he move? Spennymoor is another mining area, and so a good guess would be for work.
This is where Harry met Annie Richardson his future wife.