| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Bunton was born in Whiteinch, Dunbartonshire, on the 20 Jun 1897. He was the oldest of eight children born to Archibald Bunton and Jeanie Carson who married on New Year’s Eve 1896. Archie was a boilermaker in the Clydeside shipyards and the family moved to Beverley, so that he could take up work at the expanding Beverley shipyard. The family lived on Beaver Lane, Swinemoor and by the time of the war at Denton Villas, Holme Church Lane. Little is known about William before the war apart from his reputation as “Beverley’s Harry Lauder”, “Master Willie Bunton”, who performed at functions in the town. Harry Lauder was noted for his character songs, drawing on his Scottish roots, and was a very popular music hall star from this period. After the war William was a plumber.
William enlisted joining the 1st Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as private S/17034. They were a regular battalion in India at the start of the war but returned to France in December 1914. William was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
After the war William married Elizabeth, they had two children, Agnes born 1926 and Archibald born 1931. According to the 1939 Register the family lived at 9 St Nicholas Road and William was working as a plumber. He died in 1945.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |