BORN NEWLAND, HULL 1878. ONLY SON OF HENRY PONSONBY TOLCHARD (1846-1908) & LOUISE BROOKES WRIGHT (1845-1901). ONE OF SEVEN CHILDREN. HE HAD SIX SISTERS. EMPLOYED AS A SHIP’S STEWARD. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS, ON 15/11/1914, AGED 35 YEARS AND 14 DAYS. JOINED AS PRIVATE, 13/260, 13TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 7 INCHES TALL, 183 LBS WEIGHT, AND 39 INCH CHEST.
HE MARRIED LILIAN PYM, AT HULL, IN OCTOBER 1915.
TRANSFERRED TO THE 12TH EYR BATTALION. WOUNDED ON THE SOMME. HE DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 04/12/1916, AGED 37. HE IS BURIED AT ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “UNTIL THE DAY BREAKS. HIS DEVOTED WIFE LILIAN HULL”
PRIVATE WILLIAM DANIEL TOLCHARD 13/1467. Born in Hull in 1879, William was the youngest of six children to Henry and Louise Tolchard. The 1901 Census has him living with his parents up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he worked as a Barman, but he returned to his hometown upon their deaths- his mother later than year, and his father in 1908. It was in Hull he enlisted following the outbreak of war, joining first the 13th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, before being transferred to the 12th. He married Lilian Pym in October 1915, a few short weeks before he shipped off to fight. William was fatally wounded during the last desperate actions of the Somme campaign in November 1916 and although he lived on a few more weeks in hospital, he died on 4th December. He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery; he was 37 years old.
