| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Edmund Clare Wigfall was born at St John's Parsonage, Beverley on 13 Sep 1895, the son of the Reverend William Elliott Wigfall, Perpetual Curate of Beverley Minster, and Clara (nee Leslie), who became seriously ill following his birth and died when William was just nine days old.
In 1901 the Reverend Wigfall and his son lived at 4 Beaumont Villas, 18 Westwood Road. By 1911 their home was 16 St Giles Croft, eventually they moved to a new house in Molescroft which was named 'Renishaw'. William was a pupil at Beverley Grammar School until the age of thirteen, from 1908 he continued his education at Repton School. He went up to Queens' College, Oxford to read Theology in 1914.
He left Oxford after one term to become a soldier, he was commissioned into the Special Reserve as a probationary 2nd Lieutenant on 8 Jan 1915 and joined the 3rd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment. On 1 Jun 1915, 2nd Lieutenant Wigfall proceeded to France but on 19 Aug he was invalided home with shell shock. After a period of recuperation he continued service with the 3rd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, stationed at Hedon. His promotion to Lieutenant, with effect from 3 Feb 1916, was announced in the London Gazette. On 11 Apr 1916 he returned to the Western Front where he was attached to the 8th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment (8th Brigade in the 3rd Division) serving in the area just south of Ypres. The Division moved south to the Somme area in early Jul 1916. Lieutenant Wigfall was severely wounded in the thigh during an attack south east of Guillemont on 18 Aug 1916. He died at the Casualty Clearing Station, Boulogne, Pas de Calais, France on 29 Aug 1916, just two weeks before his twenty-first birthday and is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. The inscription on his gravestone, which reads:
“Thou gavest him a long life even for ever and ever.”
The London Gazette of 20 Oct 1916 announced His Majesty the King had awarded the Military Cross to Lieutenant William Edmund Clare Wigfall of the East Yorkshire Regiment Special Reserve for Conspicuous Gallantry in Action on 18 Aug 1916.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |