W. H. Wilson
Service no.66127
Bombardier, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 109th Bde.
Died 28 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France
Husband of A. F. Wilson, of 17, Chantrey Rd., Brixton, London.
This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:
William Henry Wilson has born on 25 June 1892, one of the five children of parents Thomas Reeves and Ellen Agnes Wilson. William was baptised on 21 August 1892 at St John, Hoxton, when the family lived in Wenlock Street, where they remained for twenty years.
By the time of the 1911 census, William’s mother had died and he shared the home with his father Thomas, sister Florence Agnes and younger brother George Albert. They had just three rooms at 65 Wenlock Street. William worked as a ‘carman contractor’.
William volunteered around the end of 1914 at Holloway, joining the Royal Field Artillery and was eventually posted to the 109th Brigade who were equipped with howitzers. He was married while a soldier on 4 April 1915 to Alice Florence Edwards, a local girl, at St Matthew’s Church, Islington, giving their address as 21 Morton Road. Just four months later, 66127 Wilson was sent to France, disembarking on 29 August 1915.
Almost a year later to the day, William was in action on the Somme as his ‘A’ Battery shot to support British advances. The batteries of the 109th Brigade were under constant shelling themselves, losing eight men in the week before 25 August. When they moved to new positions north of Montauban, on the 25 August, three more men were wounded and another killed. On 28 August, in bad weather, another man was killed and three others wounded. William Henry Wilson died of wounds on this day.
By the end of the war, William’s widow Alice was living at 17 Chantrey Road, Brixton, were she remained until 1934 when she married Frederick Muspratt who had been a ASC lorry driver in the war. She was widowed for a second time when Frederick died in 1946.
Alice Florence was living at 34 Kemerton Road, Camberwell, when she passed away on 21 July 1981, aged 86.
