Name
William Bayford
1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/05/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
TF/201819
Royal Sussex Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SAVONA TOWN CEMETERY
Italy
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Savona Memorial to the fallen in Italy.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Much Hadham memorials, Not on the Green Tye memorials, Ifield Memorial, Ifield, Crawley, West Sussex
Pre War
William Bayford was born in 1878, in Green Tye, Herts, son of William Bayford an Agricultural Worker and Eleanor (nee Cutmore) Bayford, of Church Lane Villas, Green Tye, Much Hadham, Herts. One of seven children. Christened on 6 Oct 1878 in Much Hadham, Herts.
1881 Census records William aged 2, Living with his parents, sister Emily (3), and brother John (6 months) in, Green Tye, Herts.
1891 Census records William aged 12, working as an Agricultural Labourer, living with his parents and four siblings at, Kates Green, Green Tye, Herts.
1901 Census has William working as a Domestic Coachman, boarding with William and Fanny Cox, at Summer Lodge Cottage, Ifield, Sussex, his brother Sidney was visiting him on the night of the Census.
He married Isabella Dorcas Lilliotte, of Priest Croft, Ifield, Crawley, Sussex in 1909 in Horsham.
1911 Census records William as married to Isabella and they are fostering two children Leonard (6), and Willy (5), (who they later adopt), he was working as a Nurseryman and they lived in Priest Croft, Ifield, Sussex.
Wartime Service
illiam enlisted at Crawley, posted to the Royal Sussex Regiment with the service number TF/201819.
He was on his way to Salonica with his Battalion aboard the S.S. Transylvania which had sailed from Marseille for Alexandria on 3 May 1917, escorted by two Japanese Destroyers “Matsu” and “Sakaki” at about 10am on 4 May 1917 his ship was struck by a Torpedo from the German U-Boat U-63, under the command of Otto Schultze, South of Cape Vado in the Gulf of Genoa. The Japanese Destroyer “Matsu“ came along side to take off survivors, about twenty minutes later U-63 fired a second torpedo striking the S.S. Transylvania, this time she sank almost immediately. She was carrying 2860 British Soldiers, 200 Officers and 60 Red Cross Nurses. William and 413 other men and women lost their lives in the attack.
Additional Information
Isabella received a widow’s pension of 22/11, a week from 24 December 1917, for herself and her two adopted sons. She also received his effects of £2-1s-9d, Pay Owing and £3, War Gratuity. William's wife was living in Ifield, Sussex, hence he is also named on the Ifield Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Malcolm Lennox, “Lest We Forget – Much Hadham 1914-18” by Richard Maddams (Much Hadham Forge Museum)
