William John Carter

Memorial: Thornbury - St Mary's Church

Regiment: Machine Gun Corps

Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Private 99472 (formerly 7831 Gloucester Regiment)

Parents: Rowland Henry and Elizabeth Carter

Marital status: Married

Home address: Poultry Brook, Thornbury, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Bread Delivery Man

Date of birth: 1892

Place of birth: Thornbury, Bristol

Date of death: 10/11/1918

Buried/Commemorated at: Caudry British Cemetery (Ref. I. A. 1.), Cambrai, France

Age: 26

Further information:

Bronze Tablet and Wooden Memorial Board

In 1911 William John Carter, known as Will, was living with his parents Rowland and Elizabeth Carter at Poultrybrook Farm, near Daggs Allotments. His father was a well-liked Thornbury postman for over 40 years. Will had at least two sisters and three brothers and as a youngster he was a choir boy at St Mary’s Church

Will was apprenticed to saddle and harness maker but by October 1916, when he applied for exemption from military service, he was employed as a bread delivery man by Thornbury baker A.E. Thompson. The application suggested that Will had already been rejected on medical grounds, but his application was refused, although it was noted that he should not be called up until 30th December 1916

His service record shows that he joined as a Private in the Glosters. However when he married Ruby Evelyn Brindle at Fairford, Gloucestershire, on the 20th June 1917, Will said he was serving in the Machine Gun Corps, and was residing at Grantham Camp, Lincolnshire. Will and Ruby were both aged 24

The Machine Gun Corps gained a record for heroism as a front line fighting force. In the latter part of the war it frequently saw action in advance of the front line and suffered a high casualty rate. Some 170,500 officers and men served in the M.G.C. with 62,049 becoming casualties, including 12,498 Killed in Action, earning it the nickname ‘the Suicide Club’

William Carter’s parents were buried in Thornbury Cemetery and their headstone provides a memorial to their beloved eldest son who Died of Wounds in the 19th Casualty Clearing Station at Caudry, near Cambrai, the day before the end of the fighting on the Western Front. The signing of the Armistice of Compiègne brought an end to the war in France and Flanders, coming into effect at 11 a.m. Paris time on 11th November 1918, ‘the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’

After William’s death his wife put an entry in the newspaper reading ‘In loving memory of my dear Will, dearly beloved husband of Ruby E. Carter. There comes a mist and a blinding rain, and things are never the same again.’ Ruby did not remarry and she died aged 76, at her home in Fairford in 1968

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

Thornbury Roots website, Thornbury and District Museum Research Group, Forces War Records and CWGC