Name
William James Williamson
1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/08/1916
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Company Serjeant Major
5444
Hampshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POTIJZE CHATEAU WOOD CEMETERY
A.27
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
REST IN PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Royston Town War Memorial, Not on the Baldock memorials
Pre War
William James Williamson was born in 1883 in Baldock, Herts, the son of William James and Rhoda Selina Williamson, and baptised on 15 April 1883 in Baldock.
His father died in 1888 and on the 1891 Census the family were living at Park Street, Baldock where his widowed mother was working as a charwoman and older brother James was working as an agricultural labourer. His mother remarried to John Bonner in 1897 and had moved to Paignton Road, Tottenham by 1901, her 13 year old daughter Nellie (Ellen) Williamson living with them. She returned to Hertfordshire in 1911 and was recorded as a widow living at 5 Queen's Road, Royston with daughter Ellen and working as a laundress, however, John Bonner was listed in the Edmonton Union Workhouse and he was also said to be widowed.
By 1911 William had joined the army and was recorded on the census as a sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, Mounted Infantry, Hampshire Regiment, stationed at Kings Hill, Harrismith, South Africa. His regimental number suggests he is likely to have enlisted in early 1899.
Wartime Service
He had enlisted in Southwark, London and was a serving soldier at the outbreak of war with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment in Mhow, India. They departed for England and arrived at Plymouth on 22 December 1914. They were training in Warwick when orders were received to go to Gallipoli. They left Avonmouth on 29 March 1915, sailing via Malta to Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. William was wounded in the Dardanelles campaign but recovered and in March 1916 sailed for France, landing at Marseilles and travelling by train to Pont Remy. They fought in the Battles of the Somme from 1 July and on the night of the 8th/9th August 1916 the Battalion were in trenches at Potijze, on the outskirts of Ypres. They were subjected to a gas attack that came in two waves. The gas was particularly nasty, and is described as “corroding any exposed metal and killing both birds and rats”. The battalion suffered 125 men killed and 100 wounded in the attack. William was one of those killed in action on that night and is buried in Potijze Chateau Wood Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £18 10s and pay owing of £28 17s 1d. Pension cards exist in respect of his mother was dependant, with her address given as 67 Cromwell Terrace, Queen's Road, Royston, Herts but do not give details of the payments made.
His brother, Alfred Williamson, was killed in action on the 25 September 1915, whilst serving with the Middlesex Regiment and is buried in the Cambrin Churchyard Extension, France.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, wartimememoriesproject.com
