William Brown

Memorial: Kingswood - Holy Trinity Church

Regiment: West Yorkshire Regiment

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Driver 51413

Parents: William and Emma Brown

Marital status: Married

Home address: Castle Cottage, Tower Road, Kingswood, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Bootmaker

Date of birth: 1882

Place of birth: Kingswood, Bristol

Date of death: 19/09/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site but commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium and Kingswood Holy Trinity Memorial

Age: 35

Further information:

William was born in Kingswood, the son of a bootmaker and a middle child of eleven with five brothers and five sisters. William married Sarah Jane Hill in March 1902 and their daughter Gertrude was born 9 months later. Their son William was born in 1905.

William enlisted in the 106th training reserve battalion in December 1915 and transferred to the 4th Northamptonshire Regiment before embarking for France on 22nd August 1917. He transferred to the 11th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) on 24th August 1917 and died less than 4 weeks later. William was killed in action during The Battle of Passchendaele (the third battle of Ypres) which lasted from 31st July to 10th November 1917 and resulted in combined casualties estimated to be around 800,000 for both allies and Germans. William's body was never identified and the Tyne Cot Memorial where he is remembered, is one of four memorials to the missing in an area of Flanders known as the Ypres Salient, which stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south.

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

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/