Name
William James Bloor
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/07/1916
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
12888
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial
ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN
A.26.22
France
Headstone
>Not Researched
UK Memorials
Apsley End Memorial
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Aspley Mills
Not on the Rickmansworth memorials
Pre War
William Bloor was born in Rickmansworth and his birth was registered in Watford district in the third quarter of 1890. At the 1891 census, aged 8 months, he lived with his parents Joseph and Mary and four siblings at Providence Terrace, New Road, Croxley Green. Joseph worked as a boatman. He came from a canal family. His father, William, was a boatman as was his brother Daniel who also lived in New Road in 1891.
By 1901 the family had moved to Nash Mills where Joseph was a lock keeper on the Grand Junction canal. In 1911 they were living at 15 Weymouth Street, Apsley. Joseph was still working as a waterman but William, aged 20, worked as a packer at the paper mill (presumably Dickinson’s Apsley mill which was close by). One of his brothers and a sister also worked there. It seems likely that the dedication to Private J W Bloor, Bedfordshire Regiment, on the Apsley memorial of John Dickinson and Co. refers to William.
His cousin, Dan, also died in the war. The army paid his mother Mary £16 13s 11d including a war gratuity of £8 10s.
Recorded as enlisting in Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
Private William Bloor died of wounds suffered during the Somme offensive of 1916. The 6th Bedfordshires landed in France on 30 July 1915 as part of 112th Brigade and 37th Division.
On the first day of the Somme offensive, 1 July 1916, the battalion was held in reserve at Bienvillers-au-Bois. They moved into front line trenches on 8 July and took part in the attack on Pozieres on 15 July during the battle of Bazentin Ridge. The 112th Brigade attacked from trenches south of Contalmaison but were held up by machine gun fire about 200 yards south of Pozieres.
The battalion suffered 330 casualties, about one third of its total strength.
Additional Information
His cousin, Dan, also died in the war.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Mike Collins
