| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Lance Corporal William Wickman aged 20, was killed in action on 4 Feb 1916 on the Somme, France. He is buried in the Suzanne Communal Cemetery Extension, 13 km south east of Albert in France.
William enlisted on 4 Sep, shortly after the outbreak of war, and he joined the 3rd Manchester Pals (Clerks' and Warehousemans' Battalion), 18th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. He did his training at Heaton Park in the city and arrived in France on 8 Nov 1915 and was serving in a relatively quiet section of the front. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
William was born the 12 Jun 1895 in Collyhurst, Manchester and baptised a month later. He was a clerk in an insurance company in the city. His father, Edwin Wickman was a textile machine fitter in a cotton mill; his mother was Edith was from Newcastle, they married in 1894. William was an only child and was unmarried. William was connected to Beverley through his two spinster aunts Elizabeth and Mary Jane Wickman, born in Louth, Lincolnshire, who owned a drapery business at 42 Saturday Market, "The Misses Wickman - Silk Mercers and General Drapers".
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |