Name
William Henry Bangs
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/09/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
13634
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Village Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Roll of Honour, Welwyn, Not on the Wheathampstead memorials, Not on the Gustard Wood memorial
Pre War
William Henry Bangs was born in Gustard Wood, Wheathampstead, Herts in 1891, the son of Henry Bangs and Jane (nee Groom). He was baptised on 26 July 1891 at Wheathampstead.
On the1901 Census he was living with his uncle Frederick Groom at East Lane, Wheathampstead. His parents with daughter Sarah Jane (born 1895) and son Arthur (born 1897) were living at Wheathampstead Hill.
William’s father died in 1905 and on the 1911 Census he was boarding with his mother Jane Bangs, at the home of widow Louisa Knightley and her two daughters, at Farm Yard, (now Mimram Walk) Welwyn and working as a Carter for the Coal Merchant.
Wartime Service
William was one of the first local men to join up shortly after the outbreak of war. He enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 13634 at the first recruitment meeting held in St. Mary’s Hall. Welwyn. He went to France on 11 Mar 1915 joining the 1st Battalion at Ypres.
In Apr 1915 he was diagnosed with Shell Shock at 14th Field Ambulance and sent to Divisional Rest Camp for recuperation and return to duty. Between December 1915 and January 1916 the 1st Battalion was in action around Bray-sur-Somme, where William was wounded.
He was clearly a man of some stoic humour as he wrote to friend in Welwyn from his hospital bed - ‘I am as well as can be expected. I am in hospital with a wounded ankle from shrapnel. This reminds me of the battle of Hill 60, nine months ago. The 2nd Batt of the Beds have taken up a position near us, which has proved most unfortunate for them, as they lost about a hundred men, mostly killed, I am sorry to say. Well, Walter, we have about done for our mouth organ. How many can you spare? Send some if you possibly can, as we can make good use of them out here. We can give the Germans a tune now and then while we are in the trenches. We are getting a little better weather now to what we have had.’
William may have been a member of the Beds. Battalion Machine Gun Section and as the Machine Gun Corps came into being in Sep 1915 and Machine Gun Companies were formed he was attached to 15th Machine Gun Company which was originally formed in 5th Division on 27 Dec 1915.
By September the 1st Beds were positioned near Guillemont on the Somme having taken part in action at Longueval (Jul 1916), Guillemont (3-6 Sep), Flers-Courcelette (15-22 Sep) and took part in an attack on 25 Sep 1916 at Morval during which William was killed.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His sister Sarah received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £12 1s 10d.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Stuart Osborne, Brenda Palmer
Paul Jiggens, Welwyn and District History Society - www.welwynww1.co.uk, Brenda Palmer
