Harry Henderson Macpherson was born in 22 August 1889 in San Francisco; the son of Alexanderson Macpherson and Georgina Florinda Young. He lived in San Francisco for all his youth and graduated from xx High School.

Macpherson next attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he completed his studies and graduated in 1912 as a Civil Engineer. He was working for the California Highway Commission when he volunteered for military duty and received a commission in the Army Corps of Engineers.

The newly minted Lt Macpherson reported to Camp American University, DC, on 6 July 1917 for initial training.

He was assigned to the 41st Engineers, a unit originally trained to build roads and bridges in support of the Allied Expeditionary Force in France. He sailed with the main body of the 41st Engineers, from Hoboken on the transport Olympic and arrived in Liverpool, England on March 5th; then on to Le Havre, France, arriving on March 10th.

Lt Macpherson was an officer in Company A of the 41st Engineers. The company was detached from the 41st Engineers when the unit was subsumed into the 20th Engineer Regiment. From that time on, Macpherson was in the 38th Company of the 20th Engineers.

Macpherson and the 38th Company were dispatched to the Epinal District for duty under the 2nd Battalion, 20th Engineers. The 2nd Battalion was one of the first elements of the Army Expeditionary Force to be sent to France. The 2nd Battalion was also the Regiment's forward-post unit, positioned directly behind the front lines of the Americans and French to provide support to divisions in direct combat. At some point, Macpherson was promoted to Captain and appointed Company Commander of the 15th Company.

In preparation for the major offensives in the summer and fall of 1918, elements of the 15th Company were sent far forward to camps immediately to the rear of combat forces.

On 5 October 1918 Captain Macpherson led a reconnaissance party to find new front-line project sites as Allied forces began preparations for the Meuse-Argonne and St Mihiel offensives. The party included one of the unit's sergeants and Lt W A Fair, a surgeon from the 2nd Battalion's Medical Detachment.

Captain Macpherson was crossing an open area near Varsennes, in the French sector, when he was targeted and mortally wounded by a German machine gun crew.

Lieutenant Fair rushed to assist Captain Macpherson without regard to his own safety; the machine gun also shot and killed the brave medial officer.

The area was contested by Allied and German forces for several days afterwards. It wasn't until days later that the bodies of Macpherson and Fair were recovered. They were both buried in expedient graves in the Argonne Forest.

For his bravery under enemy fire and supreme sacrifice to save the life of a fellow soldier, Lieutenant Fair was posthumously promoted to Captain and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross--the highest award given to any soldiers of the 20th Engineers in World War 1. Some reports state the award was later upgraded to a Silver Star.

Captain Macpherson was disinterred from his forest grave in November 1924 and returned to his mother in San Francisco in April 1925. He is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in San Mateo County.