Willie Skinner was the 8th child born to Elizabeth and Martin Skinner on February 8th 1889. Five more children were born after him. They were brought up in South London. At the time the war was declared Willie was a lumberjack in Canada but returned to the U.K immediately. When he registered to join the army the officer in charge asked for his name and when he said "Willie" the officer asked if he was "still tied to his mothers apron strings?" and recorded his name as William (but his real name was Willie). He was married to Maud Norvell who was Welsh and they had one daughter Gwyneth born in 1916. Willie had been wounded earlier in the war and was still not fit when he returned to his unit and his previous physical injury probably contributed to his inability to get out of the trenches and inadvertently his death.His name is on the Menin Gate memorial in Belgium - two W.Skinner's are on it so their army numbers are also added.

Irene Manners