BORN WILLERBY 1892. LIVED IN WILLERBY. ENLISTED IN HULL. SON OF CHARLES RICHARD & ELIZABETH, OF THE COTTAGES, DE LA POLE, WILLERBY, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). HE HAD ONE BROTHER AND THREE SISTERS. A WHOLESALE DEALER. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 8.5 INCHES TALL, 137LBS WEIGHT, GOOD PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, BROWN EYES, DARK BROWN HAIR, CHURCH OF ENGLAND RELIGION. HE ENLISTED ON 04/09/1914. SERVED IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 04/06/1916, AGED 24. HE HAD SERVED IN THE ARMY FOR 1 YEAR AND 275 DAYS.
HIS NAME IS INSCRIBED ON THE KIRKELLA WAR MEMORIAL AT ST ANDREWS’ CHURCH AND THE COTTINGHAM WW1 MEMORIAL. HE IS ALSO RECORDED ON THE ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH MEMORIAL, NEWINGTON, HULL
Hull Pals Memorial Post: Born in 1892, William was the third of five children to Charles and Elizabeth Miller of Asylum Cottages, Willerby. His father worked as an assistant in De La Pole Lunatic Asylum, a job which in those days must have been truly horrifying. William first found work as a Warehouseman, but was earning a living as a Draper’s Assistant when war changed everything. He enlisted at Hull City Hall joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, “‘The Commercials”’, 1st Hull Pals. His war was the Pal’s war from there on, training in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915 before shipping to Egypt to defend Suez from the Turks just before Christmas; then France from March 1916 and the trenches of the Western Front. William was killed in action on 4th June 1916 during the bombardment which caused 30 casualties and claimed the lives of so many of his comrades. He is buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 24 years old.
