Name
William Salmon
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/11/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
7705
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 10 and 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth
Pre War
William is recorded as being born in Sawbridgeworth in 1879 and at some point was living at 46 Barkers Lane (Station Road).
In the 1911 census he was still living there and was recorded as a ‘Labourer, Carting’.
His service number, and his date of death, shows that William was a professional soldier, enlisting before the war. He served in the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
He was resident in Sawbridgeworth when he enlisted there,
Wartime Service
The Battalion arrived at Le Havre in France aboard the SS Oronsa on 16 August 1914 and went to the front, eventually finding itself fighting near Ypres.
On the 9 November 1914, there was only skirmishing, but the Battalion still lost 17 killed and 7 wounded. One of the killed was William, He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, France. He was aged 35.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Douglas Coe