Pool, William R.

Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE WILLIAM POOL 11/1063. Born in 1895, William was the eldest of three children and only son of William and Elizabeth Pool of 221 Hallgate, Cottingham, Hull. A Butcher before the war, he enlisted at Hull City Hall on 9th September 1914 joining the fledgling 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. His path to the trenches was the same as all the Originals. He first trained at various different barracks around Yorkshire- Hornsea, Beverley, Ripon- before shipping to Alexandria, Egypt in December 1915 to aid in the protection of the Suez Canal from potential Turkish attacks. They arrived in Marseilles on 8th March 1916 and began the journey north to that line of ditches stretching from the Channel ports in Belgium to the Swiss border- the Western Front. William served on the Somme through 1916. He was fatally injured as the battalion attacked Oppy Wood and evacuated to 8th Casualty Clearing Station with serious abdominal wounds, the worst and most painful kind, the one that meant a slow, certain and painful death. What he must have endured I don’t want to imagine. William Pool is buried in Duisans British Cemetery; he was 22 years old. His name is listed on the Cottingham Roll of Honour.