Harold Quilter (or Quinton) James Pearce was born in the Adelaide suburb of Glanville and enlisted in the AIF in January 1916. He was 23 years old, married with two children and was a porter with SA Railways. He was also the secretary, and a player, of the South Adelaide soccer club. He was known in soccer circles as a particularly energetic secretary, actively promoting his own club and the game in general. Private Pearce turned up in uniform at a SABFA general meeting in April 1916 to say that a soccer association had been formed at the Mitcham training camp.
Pearce arrived in France with the 11th Field Ambulance in late 1916. One of his letters home describing the horrors of trench warfare was quoted in the Adelaide papers. In June 1917 he was wounded by a gas shell and evacuated to England. After recovering he seems to have continued his service in England, and in September 1918 he was granted permission to do “non-military work”. He did not return to Adelaide until April 1920.
His involvement with soccer did not continue after the war. Harold Pearce died in Adelaide in 1979.