Name
William Potten
12 September 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Marlowes Methodist Church War Memorial, Hemel Hempstead (*1)
Pre War
William Potten was born in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 12 September 1897, the son of William and Elizabeth Potten and one of seven children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 27 Alma Road, Hemel Hempstead in 1901, when his father was working as a Carter at the Iron Foundry. They had moved to to 11 Cemetery Hill, Hemel Hempstead in 1911 and William was working as a Timekeeper's Office Boy at the Paper Mill. (John Dickinson & Co at Apsley Mills).
He married Nellie Harding in 1919 in Berkhamsted and on the 1939 Register, William was living at 12 Maynard Road, Hemel Hempstead with his wife and two children, William (born 1920) and Ronald (born 1921) and working as a Bookbinder and Printer.
(Brother to Edwin and Bertram Potten who are also named on the Marlowes Methodist Church Memorial as survivors of the war.)
Wartime Service
Naval records indicate that William enlisted into the Royal Navy and served from 22 June 1916 at the shore establishment of President II. (Presumably alongside his brother Edwin who served from the day previous, 21 June 1916). It is assumed he was with the Royal Naval Air Service as his rating is ACM I (ACM =Aircraftman).
Additional Information
*1 Marlowes Methodist Church was one of the five churches that merged in 2006 to form Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church. The Marlowes Methodist Church building was built in 1890 and used regularly from then until 2006 and then again as the main Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church building from May 2012 until it finally closed in March 2014. The war memorial was removed from the building before demolition and passed to the local British Legion. The war memorial is unusual in that it names those who returned safely as well as those who died.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
mymethodisthistory.org.uk
