Name
William John Alder
1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/06/1917
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/13700
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 11 - 13 and 14.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium to the Missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Cheshunt Memorials, Not on the Waltham Cross Memorials
Pre War
William John Alder was born in Bickley Park, Kent, in 1886, son of John Alder a Gardener and Charlotte Alder (nee Kingshott). The eldest of three children.
1891 Census records William aged 4, living with his parents, and sister Daisey (3) at, Goraheats Cottage, Totterdown Road, Lower Totting, Surrey.
1901 Census, William (14), has left school and is working as a Gardener’s Boy, living with his parents, sister Daisey (12), and brother Albert (3), in Breech Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey.
1911 Census, William (24) , is working as a Domestic Gardener, living with his parents, and brother Albert (13), still in Breech Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill.
William married Edith Nellie Small of Leatherhead, Surrey, the daughter of Joseph and Annie Small on 2nd December 1913, at All Saints Church, Banstead, Surrey. They lived at 4 Glen Cottage, Breech Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey.
Wartime Service
William enlisted at Guilford, Surrey, posted to the Middlesex Regiment with the service number 3598. Later transferred to the 8th Battalion, “The Queens” (Royal West Surrey Regiment) with the service number G/13700. On completion of his training William was sent to the Western Front, where he was Killed in Action on 14th June 1917, the last day of the Battle of Messines (Battle of Messines 7th June to 14th June 1917). He has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, to the missing. Panel 13.
Additional Information
CWGC record Edith’s address as 51 Collage Road, Waltham Cross, Herts. (Collage Road is now recorded as being in Cheshunt). This is the only connection to Cheshunt and Waltham Cross, Herts, found for William and Edith.
Edith received a grant of £3, on 13th July 1917, a widow’s pension of 13/9 a week from 31st December 1917, and his effects of £3-00-11, pay owing and his war gratuity of £3.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne