Name
William Charles Banks
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/04/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
45562
Royal Field Artillery
"C" Battery, 124th Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ABBEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
IV. A. 17.
France
Headstone Inscription
'BILLY' IN PEACE WIFE AND MOTHER
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Memorial, Little Heath, Potters Bar, Little Heath & Bentley Heath Memorial, Potters Bar, All Souls Chapel Book of Remembrance, Potters Bar
Pre War
William Charles Banks was born in Potters Bar in 1887 to William Charles and Catherine Banks. William’s father died in 1889.
On the 1891 Census William was living with his widowed mother Catherine and sisters Elizabeth E (born 1887), Daisy M (born 1884), and Alice M (born 1887) at Laurel Cottages, Southgate Road, South Mimms.
On the 1901 census William was living with his widowed mother Catherine and an older brother John T Banks (born 1880) in Church Road, Potters Bar.
William enlisted at London joining the Royal Field Artillery as Gunner 44592, No service Record was found for him. On the 1911 census he was stationed in India with the 38th Battery, Royal Field Artillery.
William was married on 18 Mar 1918 to Annie Caroline Lester, who later lived at 2 Ada Villas, Avenue Rd., Old Southgate, London. (He married while on leave early in 1918)
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of the Great War in Aug 1914 William still serving in RFA. (but no longer was he with the 38th Battery as that was still in India). William landed in France on 16 August 1914. (His unit may have been 39th Battery. Later he was transferred to 124th Brigade which had arrived in France at the end of July 1915.
Possibly wounded during the Battle of the Ancre on 5 April 1918 and having been evacuated to one of the military hospitals in Abbeville. He died of his wounds on 28 April 1918.
Additional Information
War Gratuity £21 !0s and arrears of £40 18s 2d was paid to his widow.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Martin Cope
