Name
William Henry Spinks (The Rev)
1874
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/05/1918
45
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Chaplain
Young Men's Christian Association
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
XXVIII. M. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
DIED FROM INJURIES RECEIVED WHILST RESCUING A CHINAMAN DURING AN AIR RAID "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN"
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Letchworth memorials, Loughborough Roll of Honour
Pre War
William Henry Spinks was born in Worthing, Sussex, in 1873. He was the son of George Henry Spinks and his wife Elizabeth (née Hammond) who were married in Depwade, Norfolk, in 1867. William had two brothers Ernest and Albert and two sisters Florence and Bessie. Three other siblings had died young. The Rev Spinks, as he was to become was a Baptist minister.
When William was born his parents had just moved from Finsbury, Middlesex, to Worthing, not far from his mother's home town of Bognor Regis. By 1881 William's father was established as a draper employing six young ladies in Worthing and the Spinks family of parents, Ernest E (born 1870), William H, Bessie C (born 1877), Albert H (born 1879) together with Laura Webb (born 1860) & Louisa Clark (born 1854) both assistant drapers were living at 21 Warwick Street.
On the 1891 Census, William's father became a draper’s commercial traveller and moved with his family of wife, Florence, Bessie, Harold, and Frank G (born 1886) to Hawthorn Cottage, 1 Alma Villas, Ipswich.
William Spinks was an assistant pastor with the Rev. W. E. Bloomfield at Coventry at the beginning of his ministerial career. After a period in Bristol he was then appointed to the pastorate of Whyte's Causeway Baptist Church, Kirkcaldy, Fife, in March 1900.
On 18th September 1900 William married at Queen's Road Baptist Church, Coventry, to Ada Salmon, the daughter of an Inspector of Weights and Measures, of Warwick House, Earlsdon, near Coventry. The Rev. W. E. Bloomfield officiated at the service. After a honeymoon at Braemar the couple returned to 4 Victoria Gardens, Kirkcaldy.
On the 1901 Census William's parents lived at 49 Leys Avenue, Letchworth, Hertfordshire and William's father together with younger son, Frank G were working as gentleman's outfitters. William’s father died in 1912.
After five and a half years in Kirkcaldy William received a call from the Wood Gate Baptist Church in Loughborough and tendered his resignation at Kirkcaldy. In October 1905 he and his wife moved south to 3 Park Street, Loughborough and were recorded there on the 1911 Census. He held the pastorate at Wood Gate for eleven years until July 1916.
Wartime Service
Following the outbreak of the Great War in Aug 1914, in November 1914 the YMCA had gone
to France and set up a recreation centre in Le Havre. Later they set up in Rouen, Boulogne, Dieppe, Etaples and Calais, which were the main Army Bases. They also set up in the railway junctions at Abbeville, Dunkirk, Abancourt, Paris and Marseilles. They served up refreshments for the troops and provided writing and reading material which was of enormous value to the soldiers. Some of the staff of the YMCA, totalling over 1,500 in France and Flanders alone, worked in hospitals giving pastoral care and nursing support. A number of these were religious men too old or unfit to fight, but significantly some were also clergymen, like Rev. Spinks, who had opted against taking a chaplains' commission, and 40% were also women, often from the middle classes.
Before William's three months leave of absence from Loughborough expired he sent in his resignation of the Wood Gate pastorate in order that he might devote himself entirely to YMCA work. William continued working for the YMCA until his health broke down. He returned to England to recover and for a time went into a business occupation in Leicester until he was again accepted for YMCA work.
the Loughborough Roll of Honour is the following account : “The Rev W.H. Spinks was severely wounded on Sunday May 19th when a hospital in France in which he was engaged in ministerial duties was bombed. There was received the news during the weekend that the Rev gentleman had succumbed to his injuries on May 29th. His wife who had reached Folkstone on her way to visit him in France received the news. The Rev W.H. Spinks was a student pastor at Coventry at the beginning of his ministerial career, and after being at Kirkcaldy for five and a half years, he came to Loughborough in October 1905.
Afterwards his health broke down and he returned from France, and after recovering he went into business occupation in Leicester for a time, until he was again accepted for YMCA work. He had only been in France a few days when he received the severe wounds which caused his death.”
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, North Wales Western Front Association, www.nwwfa.org.uk/index.php/newsletters/2016/september, Loughborough Roll of Honour
