Name
William Sewell
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1917
40
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
35962
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath
Pre War
Born in in 1876 and baptised on 7 June 1876 at St John’s church in Darlington, Durham, William was the third son of William (Snr.) and Mary (nee Holmes) Sewell. His father was the managing editor of a newspaper in Darlington and was also the town registrar.
At the time of the 1891 census, William was fourteen and a boarder at North Eastern County School in Barnard Castle, Durham. In 1987, he became a student at the Herkomer Art School in Bushey and, at the 1901 census, was lodging at 7 Bournehall Road, Bushey with William Holt, a police constable, his wife Miriam and their seven children.
William married Margaret Ley on 15 June 1909 at St Mark’s church in Surbiton. She was the daughter of James Perchild Ley, a stockbroker, of 8 Clark’s Hill in Surbiton. Both William and Margaret were 33 years old. William was resident in Bushey and working as an artist.
At the 1911 census, William and Margaret were living at ‘Carisbrook’, Little Bushey, Bushey Heath. William was working on his own account as an artist and the couple had an eleven-month-old daughter named Phillada who had been born on 20 May 1910. They also employed a nurse and a general servant. Margaret’s birthplace was given as St John’s Wood, London.
They later moved to ‘Chester Cottage’, High Road, Bushey Heath.
Wartime Service
William enlisted in Watford with the Bedfordshire Regiment and served on the Western Front as Private 35962 in the 6th Battalion. He was killed in action, aged 40, on 23 April 1917 and is remembered with honour at the Arras Memorial for the missing.
He is also commemorated on the Bushey Memorial, at St Peter’s Church in Bushey Heath and on the War Memorial in Darlington, his childhood home. The heads of four soldiers painted by William Sewell are held by the Bushey Museum and Art Gallery.
In 1923, Mary Jewell Ley, his wife’s mother, was living at ‘The White House’, Bushey on Sparrows Herne. An article in the Darlington & Stockton Times records her gift of a reading desk and chair to St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath, given in memory of her son, Major James Wickham Ley, and her son-in-law, William Sewell. The article reads: "IN MEMORIAM at the Memorial Chapel, Bushey Heath, Herts. at the close of the Communion service last Sunday morning, a carved oak reading desk and chair, the gifts of Mrs Ley, of White House, Bushey Heath, were dedicated. A brass plaque at the back of the chair bears the following inscription: 'THE GIFT of MARY JEWELL LEY. TO THE GLORY OF GOD. In memory of my son, James Wickham Ley, who died in Mesopotamia, and of my son in law, William Sewell, who died in France'. Mr Sewell, who was an artist, was the younger surviving son of Mr. and Mrs. William Sewell of Stanhope-road, Darlington. He took part in the heavy fighting about Arras during April, 1917, and was reported “missing.”
There is an entry for William in the National Probate Calendar for 1918, which reads: "SEWELL William of Chester Cottage Bushey Heath Hertfordshire died 23 April 1917 in France or Flanders on active service Administration London 2 August to Margaret Sewell widow. Effects £1072 1s. 11d.
William’s daughter, Phillada, became a well-known actress. She died in 1998.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
