BORN HULL 1890. SON OF JAMES COPPOCK & FANNY JANE McPHERSON. EX RECKITT’S WORKER. HE JOINED RECKITTS, ON 2ND NOVEMBER 1903 AND WORKED AS A CLEK IN THE KINGSTON OFFICE. ENLISTED HULL, ON 07/09/1914. SERVED WITH THE 10TH EYR. WOUNDED ON 04/06/1916. DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 05/06/1916, AGED 26. HE LEFT £247 IN HIS WILL, TO HIS FATHER, JAMES, AT THIS PROBATE ADDRESS.
Hull Pals Memorials write:Born in 1889, William was the eldest of four children to James and Fanny MacPherson of 35 Middleburgh Street, Hull. A Reckitt’s Clerk before the war, he enlisted on 7th September 1914 joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, “The Commercials”, 1st Hull Pals joining the fight for King and Country.
The Pals shipped for Egypt in December 1915 having been posted to defend the Suez Canal from potential attack by the Turks. Strategically vital to the war effort, Suez had to be protected at all costs, but the attack never came and the boys had more to fear from the heat of the desert days and the crippling cold of the nights. In February their war took a turn for the worse and they left Port Said bound for Marseilles and the journey north to the trenches of the Western Front.
Following a mauling in the front line in the small hours of June 4th the Pals were relieved by the 17th West Yorkshire and retired to billets at Bus-Les-Artois. William however had been wounded in the arm that night and taken to 2nd Stationary Hospital at Abbeville where his wound went gangrenous and killed him just 24 hours later.
William is buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery; he was 26 years old.
MacPherson, William Arthur
First name:
WILLIAM ARTHUR
Military Number:
10/827
Rank:
Lance Corporal
Date Died
05/06/1916
Place died:
Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France
Age:
26
35, MIDDLEBURG STREET, HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE, UK
