Name
William Sear
1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36345
Bedfordshire Regiment
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NORTHCHURCH BAPTIST CHAPEL BURIAL GROUND
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Northchurch Village Memorial, St Mary’s Church Window, Northchurch, Northchurch Baptist Church Memorial
Pre War
William was born in 1877 the son of Walter and Emily Sear (nee Deacon) and one of five children.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at Orchard End, Northchurch where his father was working as a bricklayer. His mother died in 1890 aged 36 and on the 1891 Census the family remained in Orchard End with William being one of five children being looked after by his aunt Sarah Ann Sear as housekeeper. His father remarried in 1893 to Annie Deacon (possibly his sister in law). They had moved to Clarence Road, Berkhamsted by 1901 and William, like his father, was working as a bricklayer.
He married Kate Mary Jones in 1907 and on the 1911 Census they were living at Orchard End, Northchurch.
Wartime Service
The following is an extract from 'Northchurch Memories' group on Facebook:
"William Sear, a married man of 39 from Northchurch and regular attendee at the Baptist Chapel, received his conscription papers in the summer of 1916. William had spent the previous two years trying his best to keep his ageing uncle's building, dairy and market garden running by working all hours of the day, and had watched helplessly as his fellow workmates had either volunteered to serve in the army or had been conscripted. All appeals for his exemption were rebutted by the authorities, and being found unfit for front-line service, William was assigned to 12th (Transport Works) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, a home defence unit based in Newhaven, tasked with keeping the port running.
Not long after his arrival in Newhaven in February 1917, William started complaining about pains in his head and became increasingly depressed and nervous. On the afternoon of 8th April he told his landlady that he was going for a walk; he was not seen alive again. The following day William's body was found hanging in a barn on the outskirts of Newhaven. The subsequent inquest found that William had 'committed suicide by hanging himself whilst insane at the time'. William's body was subsequently returned to Northchurch and now lies in a grave in the old Baptist Chapel graveyard in Bell Lane, beneath a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone."
Additional Information
A war gratuity was not admissible but his widow received pay owing of £4 14s 11d and a pension of 13s 9d a week.
Brother John served with the ASC, later transferred to the Essex Regiment, but survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/first-world-war-database, ww.facebook.com/Northchurchmemories,
