Harry Popplewell was the first tenant of 7 Coronation Street in 1902. The Popplewells were led by Harry's father Ernest but no one was sorry when he died from a heart attack during a game of dominoes in 1904; it allowed Harry to get to know his brother Alfred Makepiece, who Ernest had abandoned to the parish as a child and treated like a pariah when he discovered they now lived in the same street.
Harry was employed as a storeman at Hardcastle's warehouse. At the onset of the war, Harry lied about his age so he could enlist alongside his son Herbert. Harry survived the war but fell overboard when crossing the channel on his way home and drowned. He was survived by his wife Clara, his daughter Emily and son Herbert.
- Harry first appeared in Daran Little and Bill Hill's "Weatherfield Life", published in 1992. Other information is derived from Little's follow-up book, "Around the Coronation Street Houses".