BORN 18/08/1896. SON OF JOHN WILLIAM WILKINSON (1862-1949) & JESSIE SHEPPARD (1867-1948), OF SUMMERJAY’S COTTAGE, WESTCOTT STREET, HULL AND “ASHDENE”, SUTTON, INGS. SON OF A MARKET GARDENER. ONE OF SEVEN CHILDREN AND THREE SONS KILLED IN THE WAR.
EDUCATED AT MERSEY STREET SCHOOL, HULL. WORKED AS A TINNER’S APPRENTICE. WENT TO CANADA IN MAY 1914, AND SETTLED AS A FARMER IN MANITOBA.
HE ENLISTED ON 07/12/1915. RETURNED TO ENGLAND WITH THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT IN AUGUST 1916. SERVED IN FRANCE FROM MAY 1917. WAS KILLED AT PASSCHENDAELE, ON 27/10/1917, AGED 21, AND IS BURIED THERE. HIS OFFICER, WROTE, “HE FOUGHT GALLANTLY TO THE LAST AND COULD ILL BE SPARED.” HE WAS UNMARRIED.
HE IS BURIED AT PASSCHENDAELE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, WEST-VLAANDEREN, BELGIUM. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “TO HIM THE HONOUR & GLORY TO US THE MEMORY R.I.P.”
HIS DEATH IS RECORDED IN THE DE RUVIGNY ROLL OF HONOUR, VOLUME 4, WITH HIS TWO BROTHERS WHO WERE ALSO KILLED IN 1917.
THEY WERE, DRIVER, WILLIAM SHEPPARD WILKINSON, RFA, KILLED IN ACTION, ON THE 19/09/1917, AGED 19, AND OLDER BROTHER, SGT, JOHN HENRY WILKINSON, MM, 10TH EYR, WOUNDED AT OPPY WOOD, AND DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 02/06/1917, AGED 24.
