| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Barnard, aged 22 of Beverley, served in the Royal Navy from Oct 1915 to Feb 1919. He was an Engine Room Artificer, a trade in which he had served a pre-war apprenticeship. He spent time at sea on the light cruiser HMS Caradoc, after 1917, but also spent time ashore at Portsmouth (HMS Victory) and at HMS Attentive, the shore base for the Dover Patrol in the English Channel. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
William was born in Beverley on 20 Aug 1893 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 31 Aug 1893. His father William Barnard, was a printer and compositor and his mother was Mary Jane (nee Harper (1871-1952); both were from Beverley. William had three younger brothers- Harold, George Frederick and Herbert Claude. All served in the war. The family was originally from Beverley but at the turn of the century had spent time in Holt, Norfolk. On their return they lived at 115 Grovehill Road and then at 7 Westwood Road in the town.
After leaving the Royal Navy, William spent some time in the York area before moving back to Beverley and living at 33 Well Lane and later at 9 Martin Lane. On 18 Sep 1919 he married Annie Ripley at the parish church in Myton-on-Swale near Boroughbridge. Before the war she had been in domestic service at Yeadon, north of Leeds. Her brother, Sapper Mark Ripley, Royal Engineers, had been killed on the Somme on 28 Aug 1916. The couple had two daughters Mary born in Jun 1922 at Easingwold, and Betty born in Beverley in Mar 1926. Sadly his wife, Annie died later that year.
The 1925 electoral register notes that William had a motor business in Swaby’s Yard. It is likely that this became “Barnard and Welburn Motor Engineers” who were initially in Walkergate and then at 22 Norwood. Tom Welburn had also served in the war in a Field Ambulance Company.
William died in Beverley on 18 Dec 1937.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |