| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
On 1 Jul 1915 Private William Durkin sailed to the Gallipoli Peninsula with the 6th East Yorkshire Pioneer Battalion under orders of 32nd Brigade, 11th Northern Division arriving near to Lala Baba at Sulva Bay on 7 Aug. William joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in Hull in Oct 1914 and spent time at Belton Park Army Camp and Witley Camp until his posting to Turkey. He left behind his wife Lizzie and 2 year old daughter Doris May.
William was born in 1889 into a family of agricultural workers. His father John Durkin was Irish but had been working in and around Barmby Moor and Pocklington from at least 1881. His mother Ellen, nee Harman came from Elloughton where her family can also be found working on the land.
In 1895 when William was 5 his mother died. The 1901 census shows William and a younger brother, Thomas, father John Durkin with his second wife, Margaret, living as lodgers in Union Street, Pocklington. There is no mention of William's three brothers and two sisters.
By 1911 William had met and married Elizabeth Bruce in St Mary's Church Beverley and according to the 1911 census they are living with William's elder sister, Mary Ellen and her husband, Alfred Shipley at Raywell. William's occupation is shown as Railway Plate Layer and there is a record of him in 1913 as a member of the Railway Workers' Union, at the time he joined the East Yorkshire Regiment his occupation is given as farm servant.
William was killed in action on 22 Aug 1915 at the battle for Scimitar Hill, the last major battle to be fought on the Gallipoli peninsula. The army record bluntly notes there were no possessions to return to his wife but also tells us Lizzie was awarded a pension of 15 shillings a week.
William is mentioned in articles in both the Hull Daily Mail and Beverley Guardian following his death and his name can be found on the Beverley War Memorial and in Beverley Minster
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |