Name
Willie Woods
1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/05/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
39634
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I. P. 42.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead
Pre War
Willie Woods was born in 1877 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of George and Martha Woods and one of eight children. On the 1881 Census the family were living at Durrants Hill, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Tanner. They remained there in 1891 but his mother died in 1892.
He had started work at John Dickinson & Co Ltd in Apsley Mills shortly before his mother's death and in 1901 was living as a boarder with George and Annie Gwinnell at Langley Bridge, Abbots Langley, Herts. George Gwinnell was a beer house keeper. Willie's occupation is not given. and his father in 1907.
His father in 1907 and Willie was then working as a Carter for Walter Greey, who ran an upholstery business in the High Street in Hemel Hempstead. His brother Samuel died in 1912.
He married Charlotte Greenhill in 1913 in Hemel Hempstead and they lived at 49 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead. They had a daughter Nancy who was born in 1915.
Wartime Service
Willie enlisted in Watford, Herts in December 1916 at the age of 39, and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, being posted to the 8th Battalion for basic training. Three months later he was sent to France at the end of March 1917.
He saw action soon after arrival, and in mid April fought in the Battle of Hill 70, near Lens, being subjected to intensive machine gun fire and heavy artillery shelling whilst attempting to gain ground.
He was killed in action on 21 May 1917, aged 40, from enemy mortars when the battalion was in trenches near Hulluch, France and is buried at Philosphe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £2 0s 5d. It is likely she also received a war pension, however pension record cards give no indication as to the amount.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org.. www.hemelheroes.com., www.bedfordregiment.org.uk.
