| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William was born in Beverley the 17 Jul 1897, the son of Mark Willliamson and Jane (nee Taylor). In 1911 William was a draper’s errand boy but by the time of the war he was working as a tanner’s labourer.
William served in France during the second half of the war, on 28 Nov 1918, just a few weeks after the Armistice had ended the war, when he was admitted to the 4th Canadian Casualty Station with influenza. It developed into pneumonia and at 02.30 on 6 Dec 1918 William died. He is buried at the Valenciennes (St Roch) Communal Cemetery in northern France. A letter from an unnamed CCS chaplain to his parents appeared in the Beverley Guardian of 21 Dec 1918 and he stated that,
“It seems exceptionally sad and hard to understand why our lads should be taken in this manner after having safely endured hardships of war, and when we were anticipating happy meetings in the near future.”
Little is known of William’s military career and there is some confusion over which regiment he belonged to. His medal rolls say he was in the Lincolnshire Regiment whilst the Commonwealth War Graves’ Commission record states that he was in the 5th Yorkshire Regiment. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
William is remembered on the Hengate War Memorial and on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster as well as the Grovehill Road Street Shrine.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |