Name
William (Bill) Butts
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/11/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2504
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, 4 Co' Hertfordshire Reg' Territorials’ Memorial, Hitchin, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
He was born in Houghton in Hampshire, lived in Hitchin and worked at Russell's Tanyard for eleven years. Bill's home was at 6, Verulam Road, Hitchin and he had a brother.
Wartime Service
He had served for four years in ‘E’ (sic) Company of the Hertfordshire Territorials, enlisting in Hertford and given the Regimental Number 2504. It is more likely that he was in ‘G’ Company serving the Hitchin area where he lived rather than ‘E’' Company who generally came from the Letchworth area.
The War Memorial al the Drill Hall, Bedford Rd, Hitchin states that he had been a member of No. 4 Company in the 1st Battalion of the Regiment - Herts Companies were renumbered to the Guards style numbering later) He had volunteered in August 1914 and went lo France in November 1914 and was killed by a shell a fortnight later in action during his first engagement at Ypres. He was the first Territorial from Hitchin to be killed in the war. It was said that "He had a genial disposition and was popular at work and eagerly accepted the opportunity of coming to close grips with the enemy".
The Herts were a Territorial Force unit under Lieut Colonel the Viscount Hampden. They left Bury St. Edmunds on the 5th November 1914 and went to Southampton, Le Havre and arrived at St. Omer on the 9th November. They joined the 4th Guards Brigade and thereafter called themselves the ‘Herts Guards’. They marched through Ypres and sustained their first casualties before stopping on the Menin road. They then took over trenches at Nonne Bosschen near Ypres. They were not involved in any major incidents at this time but did suffer casualties from shell-fire and sniping.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Panels 54 and 56 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Belgium.
Additional Information
The North Herts Gazette records 'Bill' as the first Hitchin Territorial to fall in battle. He is mentioned in the story of William Sell, which can be found here in the Archive at: Archive - Hertfordshire Men & Women - Individuals Stories - William Sell (MM) - Biography Include others from the Herts Reg
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild, Dan Hill
