William Edwards Woodham

Memorial: Marshfield - High Street

Regiment: Somerset Light Infantry

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

Rank and number: Private 2515

Parents: John and Mary Jane Edwards Woodham

Marital status: Single

Home address: East End, Marshfield, Glos

Pre-war occupation: Carter

Date of birth: 1893

Place of birth: Ringswell, Marshfield, Glos

Date of death: 29/03/1916

Buried/Commemorated at: Kirkee 1914-1918 Memorial (Face C.), India

Age: 23

Further information:

At the turn of the twentieth century there were two Edwards Woodham families living at Ringswell, the elder Charles Edwards Woodham, worked as a Carter. One of his sons George Charles, born in 1891 was killed in April 1918 serving with the Royal Engineers. William Edwards Woodham was slightly younger and was the son of John Edwards Woodham, a farm labourer and his wife Mary.

By the time of the 1911 census, both families had left Ringswell, Charles and Emma had moved to Colerne, whilst John and Mary with their five children had moved to Little End by this time, William now aged 16 was working as a Carter on a local farm. He had enlisted in the 1st/4th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, a Territorial Battalion, and by 9 October 1914 he and his comrades were on their way to India, landing a month later at Bombay. For the next 15 months the Battalion was engaged in garrison duties as well as training, latterly based at Nowshera on the North West Frontier. Early in February the Battalion received orders to join the Indian Expeditionary Force to Mesopotamia, present day Iraq, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The 1st/4th Somerset’s, 27 officers and 705 Other Ranks entrained for Karachi, from whence they sailed, part of 37 Infantry Brigade arriving at Basra on 23 February 1916. Their task was to strengthen the small British/Indian force whose role was to protect the oil fields near the Persian Gulf.

The 37th Infantry Brigade made their way up the Tigris in barges and then marched over the desert for two days towards the Dijallah Redoubt, a key strategic point defended by Turkish forces. At 06.30 on 6 March the 1st/4th Somerset’s, together with 1st/2nd Gurkhas and the 92nd Punjab Regiment started the assault. There was little cover and the brigade advanced under rifle fire and shrapnel from artillery. Casualties were taken and two platoons of the Somerset’s were sent forward to take out the snipers. Eventually they were driven back losing several of their number, either killed or wounded.

Later in the afternoon at 16.40 another assault was made, but without success. The Somerset’s fell back into their trenches with another 50 wounded. Their first experience of warfare had not been a pleasant experience for 1st/4th Somerset’s and certainly not for William Edwards Woodham who received his wounds that day. He was taken back to Basra and thence by hospital ship to Colombo and then onto Military Hospital in Bombay. He died of his wounds on 29 March 1916.

He was buried in the Service Cemetery at Bombay and his name appears on the Commonwealth War Graves Memorial (Face C.) at Kirkee, Northern India.

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

https://allaroundmarshfieldorg.wordpress.com/world-war-1-remembrance-stories/
Forces War Records and CWGC