In August 1915 William was single and living at 92 Cowper Street, Hove. He enlisted as a private in the British Army, serving in the 17th Company, Machine Gun Corps (infantry) service number 9559 and The Royal Sussex Regiment, service number 7759.

The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front. Possibly, William joined The Royal Sussex Regiment initially and then transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.

In its short history the Machine Gun Corps gained an enviable record for heroism as a front line fighting force. Indeed, in the latter part of the war, as tactics changed to defence in depth, it commonly served well in advance of the front line. It had a less enviable record for its casualty rate. Some 170,500 officers and men served in the MGC with 62,049 becoming casualties, including 12,498 killed, earning it the nickname ’the Suicide club’.   (www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/4982/machine-gun-corps).

William was killed in the Battle of the Somme on the 26th August 1916 and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France, (Pier and Face 5 C and 12 C).  (cWGC,ORG

Nick Turrell