Name
William Thomas Pettitt
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/04/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIEILLE-CHAPELLE NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, LACOUTURE
III. D. 10.
France
Headstone Inscription
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead,
We are not aware of any memorial in Nash Mills
Pre War
William Thomas Pettitt was born on 27 June 1887 in Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, the son of William and Elizabeth Pettitt, and one of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 23 The Mill Square, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Herts where his father was working as a Steam Engine Fitter. William was educated at Tring New Mill School from 1892 when he was five years old, but left in the December when the family moved to Hemel Hempstead, where he attended Apsley Boys School and showed natural ability. He was appointed as a monitor in 1899, a system whereby the brightest children were enlisted to help other children with their lessons and assist the teacher.
The 1901 Census records the family living at 15 Corner Hall, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, when his father was working as a Mechanical Engineer at the Paper Mill. (John Dickinson & Co), and William was a 13 year old scholar.
He joined the army in 1906 and by the 1911 Census was serving as a Corporal in the 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and living at the Bhurtpore Military Barracks, South Tidworth, Hampshire.
He met nurse Emily Nelson whilst in Hospital in Cambridge, whom he married in late 1915 at Woodbridge, Suffolk and they had a son Nelson born in Settle, Yorkshire, at the end of 1916. Their home was at Station Road, Settle, Yorkshire. Sadly William never met his son.
Wartime Service
William was a serving soldier (Reg. No. 8551) and had been promoted to Sergeant with the 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at the outbreak of war when the Battalion embarked for France on 13 August 1914. He saw action at Mons, and at the Battles of Marne and Aisne. He was wounded in September 1914 when he was hit in the foot and lay in a trench for three hours, before crawling to a hayrick where he was picked up and taken to Le Havre for evacuation to England. Having received treatment at the Military Hospital in Cambridge he was discharged and visited family in Hemel Hempstead before re-joining his regiment in Preston, Lancs in mid November.
He had been a drill instructor to recruits during 1915 and returned to France in 1916, seeing action on the Somme and the following year in the Battles of Arras, Vimy Ridge, Aisne and Messines and Passchendaele. He was made Company Sergeant Major and in November 1917 was Commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant.
In April 1918 the 1st Battalion was near Bethune holding positions at La Basse when the Germans attacked with force. There were heavy casualties with 12 Officers and 340 Other Ranks killed, missing or wounded. William was one of the officers and was killed in action by a shell on 19 April 1918, aged 30. He is buried at Vielle-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture, France. (N.B. His body was initially interred at the King's Liverpool's Graveyard, Cuinchy and reinterred at Vielle-Chapelle in 1925.)
Additional Information
His widow received war gratuities totalling £60 and pay owing of £12 14s 2d.
Emily Nelson came from Settle. She was a nurse serving in a home hospital in the early part of the war. When William was wounded in September 1914 and repatriated to England she met him at the Military Hospital in Cambridge. After she was widowed she carried on nursing and delivered many babies in the town of Settle. She ended her working life as the "Nurse in Charge" of a Maternity Hospital and died in 1955, age 70. She never remarried was known forever after as Nurse Pettit.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, cpgw.org.uk (Craven's Part in the Great War), www.ncbpt.org.uk (Museum of North Craven Life), www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelheroes.com, www.hemelatwar.org.
