Woodall, William Henry

BORN HESSLE 1895. SON OF GEORGE ROBERT & SARAH MARTHA WOODALL. ENLISTED IN HULL PALS. ACCIDENTALLY KILLED ON 08/08/1918, AGED 23. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “DEATH DIVIDES STILL MEMORY CLINGS”
Hull Pals Memorial Post. CPL WILLIAM HENRY WOODALL 13/295. Born in Hessle, Yorkshire in 1895 William was the eldest of five children to George and Sarah Woodall of 6 Susannah’s Terrace, Lee Smith Street, Hedon Road, Hull. A Butcher before the war he enlisted at City Hall on 16th November 1914 joining the 13th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 4th Hull Pals, transferring to the 11th in February 1918 when the battalions merged. He served in all the major campaigns in the Pal’s war from Egypt to the Somme, Oppy Wood to the Spring Offensive and was a part of the Trench Mortar Battery, which proved his undoing. He was killed when a training ground accident on 8th August 1918 left him with “severe injuries to head and body caused by metal fragments” during a demonstration of anti-aircraft firing given by Staff Sergeant Instructor Russell of GHQ LTM School. The accident killed six men, including Staff Sergeant Russell, and injured a further three. The subsequent inquiry concluded that:
“The shell exploded at the bottom of the barrel and I consider there is only one explanation of this, that the detonator was not properly crimped on to the fuse, came off on the shock of discharge and almost simultaneously detonated.”
One detail in the report interests me. The army asked, “Do you know if there is anyone who saw the fuse being prepared?” and the answer came “There is no-one. The man who prepared the fuse was killed.” The report has been edited to read “The MEN who prepared the fuse WERE killed.” This implies that the army were blaming the men involved for the accident and was not itself.
William is buried in Le Grand Hasard Military Cemetery; he was 23 years old.