| Date of birth: | 1877 |
| Place of birth: | Not known |
| Service No.: | 201983 |
| Rank: | Private |
| Regiment: | Royal Warwickshire |
| Battalion: | 1st / 5th |
| Died: | 21st April 1917 aged 40 years |
| Death location: | The Somme |
Life before the War
There are very few personal records to be found on William. Official documents state that he was married to one Marion P and that they lived at 40 Janson Road, Shirley. It has not been possible to verify even this information.
War Service
William’s regiment was attached to the 48th (South Midland) Division, which landed at Le Havre on 22nd March 1915. The Division fought on the Western Front until the end of 1917 and finished the war in Italy.
It was during the Division’s time in the Battle of the Somme at the Western Front that William lost his life.
The town of Peronne was in German hands from 24th September 1914 until 18th March 1917 when the 48th captured it.
William’s grave is in the Personne Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme (Plot 1, Row A, Grave 8). The cemetery extension was started by the 48th in the March of 1917, but both town and cemetery were back in German hands on 23 March 1918. An Australian Division recaptured the town in September 1918.
At the Armistice the extension contained 177 graves, now in Plots 1 and 2. Other graves were brought in from surrounding battlefields and it now contains 1595 Commonwealth and 97 German war graves.
William’s headstone reads: “The dead we mourn are with us yet and more than ever ours”
| Researcher: | Mark Heritage |
| Published: | 9th June 2015 |
| Updated: | Insert dates here |
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