BORN COLNE 1874. WIFE ADA (RANCH) ABOVE. SON OF ROBERT & BETSY WELLS, COLNE, LANCS. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 26/06/1916, AGED 42. (1918 ABSENT VOTERS. ADDRESS)
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE WILLIE WELLS 11/1393. Born in 1874 in Colne, Lancashire Willie was one of eight children to Robert and Betsy Wells. Moving to Hull where he worked first as a Tannery Labourer and then as a Marine Fireman, Willie met and married Ada Ranch and the couple had five children- William, Louis, Ada, Robert and Doris- and the family lived at 5 Henry’s Terrace, Wassand Street, Hessle Road. He enlisted at Hull City Hall on 8th January 1915 and joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, Hull Pals. After serving in Egypt, the Pals arrived on the Western Front in March 1916 and Willie was disciplined for being absent from the Marching-Out Parade as they left Marseilles on the 8th. He was listed as ‘Missing’ on 26th June 1916 and finally declared as ‘Killed in Action’ following written testimony on 11th September. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 42 years old. Ada and the children left Hull to be closer to Willie’s parents in Colne, but her tragedy was not complete, baby Doris died of pneumonia on 15th December 1916.
Wells, Willian (Willie)
First name:
WILLIE
Military Number:
11/1393
Rank:
Private
Date Died
26/06/1916
Place died:
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Age:
42
