| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Megson was aged 21 when in Sep 1916 he was seriously injured whilst serving in a relatively quiet north western sector of the line on the Somme. The Beverley Guardian of 30 Sep reported that, ”his father had received a letter from one of the nurses at the Base Hospital stating that William had been shot in the head by a German sniper and that she feared he will lose the sight of one eye, if not, both”. In fact William did lose the sight in both eyes and was discharged from the Army on 13 Nov 1916. He was awarded the Silver Badge given to those soldiers unable to continue in military service. He was also awarded the War and Victory Medals.
William enlisted the 4 Nov 1915 and arrived in France in the spring of 1916. He was a Private in the 11th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, popularly known as the Hull Tradesman’s Battalion and the Hull Pals. He also served in the 12th Battalion, the Hull Sportsmen’s Battalion. William had worked at Moore’s Farm at Burn Butts, Watton, near Cranswick.
William was born in Beverley the 5 Aug 1895, to William Henry Megson, a bricklayer of Beverley and Mary H Hewson, housekeeper. She had two other children with William, Herbert born 1899 and Dorothy born 1904. William’s birth entry records him as “William Megson Hewson” but he used the “Megson” as his surname. His father had a further child, Florence born 1909, to Mary Ann Brumpton, described as the family’s “housekeeper” in the 1911 census. She later married William Henry in 1931. The family in 1911 were living at 29 Newbiggin, Beverley and later at 56 Swinemoor Lane, Beverley.
In the 1939 Register William is recorded as working as a “houseman” at Tickton Hall, Tickton, near Beverley. In 1935 he married Mary E Wilson, a cook at the Hall, she died in 1968. William may have died in 1970, and was buried at Tickton Church.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |