Born Harry Earl Caine in Hell’s Kitchen New York, to an Irish father and German mother on the 18th. June 1916, Harry grew up in a part loving, part dysfunctional home that had some warmth but no certainty. He performed well at school academically but was disruptive; there were mentions of gambling on the school reports. Harry had a criminal record with minor infringements alongside his father to do with alcohol provision and gambling when he was in his late teens. Wanting to create a different life away from where he could see it heading, he joined the Marines at twenty, and he performed well in all areas. He wasn’t socially popular with persistent rumours of taking money from his colleagues through gambling with playing cards. As a natural loner and introvert, Harry proved himself to have the patience and control to be a good sniper for a number of years, and then he worked his way up the ranks to Captain.
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After the war, Harry moved to Britain as he had served there and liked the people and culture. He soon met his wife to be, Frances and they quickly married, both believing they had met their one and only soul mate. Sadly Frances was taken from Harry as she was a victim of a vicious mugging near their home in Walham Green in April 1947 which left him devastated.
Harry decided to stay in Britain as there was nothing for him back in America as his parents were dead and the roots he thought he'd made were in the U.K. He was already working at the Daily Sketch as a crime reporter that the editor Fred Lonsdale had given him after meeting through Fred’s long-term friendship of Harry’s deceased wife. Through another story Harry was researching, he met and befriended a local gym owner called Charlie, and they soon moved in together in Notting Hill, sharing many common interests, music, cooking, American upbringing and London nightlife.