| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Grice enlisted in Hull the 12 May1915, and joined the Royal Field Artillery, specifically the 38th Hull Divisional Ammunition train and was later in the 31st Divisional Ammunition Column, 30th Division. Both would have transported the shells from supply points to the guns behind the front line. William served as a shoeing smith for the horses and was classed as being “very good” in a competency exam prior to joining. He was quickly promoted to the rank of corporal and spent time in 1917-18 as an acting farrier-sergeant. He was considered so valuable to the army that after the end of hostilities he was required to stay in the army until a satisfactory replacement was found; he didn’t leave the army until 31 Mar 1920, spending the last year of service in the UK. He arrived in France on 30 Dec 1915, thereby qualifying for a 1914-15 Star. He was also awarded the War and Victory medals.
William was born in Beverley the 2 Apr 1895. His parents John and Martha Alice Grice had only recently moved to Beverley from North Yorkshire where John had been working on the land. In Beverley they lived at Enfields, Railway Terrace. William had two sisters, Florence and Elsie and two older brothers, Alfred and Arthur. His father died in 1897 and his mother remarried, his stepfather was Robert Andrew, born in Roxby, Lincolnshire, a farm labourer and later a rulleyman (carter). They had two sons: Robert born 1897 and Joseph born 1900. The family later lived at 40 Trinity Lane, Beverley. William was an errand boy for a furniture dealer in the 1911 census and only later became a shoeing smith. He married at Beverley Minster whilst on leave from the army on 24 Sep 1917. His wife Dorothy Cattle, born in Hull in 1898 her father, George Cattle, was a brush maker.
They lived at 17 Butcher Row. There is no record of them having children. In the 1939 Register William is recorded as an oil miller. He died in 1966.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |