BORN SUTTON 02/01/1893. 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 1917. HIS FATHER WAS A MARKET GARDENER, AT ASHENDENE, SUTTON, INGS, HULL.
HE WAS A HULL SCHOOL TEACHER. EDUCATED AT HULL TRAINING COLLEGE, WHERE HIS LOVE OF SPORT, MADE HIM VERY POPULAR.
HE ENLISTED IN THE 10TH ‘HULL COMMERCIALS’, ON THE 19/09/1914. PROMOTED TO SERGEANT. SERVED IN FRANCE, FROM 23/10/1915. HE WAS AWARDED THE MILITARY MEDAL, AT SERRE, ON 13/11/1916, FOR STORMING A TRENCH, AND TAKING SEVERAL PRISONERS AND A GUN. WOUNDED AT OPPY WOOD ON 03/05/1917. HE DIED OF HIS WOUNDS, AT NO: 7 CANADIAN HOSPITAL, ON 02/06/1917, AGED 24. HE IS BURIED AT ETAPLES. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 08/06/1917. *
HIS COMMANDING OFFICER WROTE, ” HE WAS MOST MAGNIFICENT ON THE 3RD MAY AND I HAVE NEVER KNOWN ANYONE SO DEVOID OF FEAR. HE DIED AS MAGNIFICENTLY AS HE HAD LIVED; WAS ABSOLUTELY SPLENDID, AS COOL AND FEARLESS, AS THOUGH HE HAD BEEN ON PARADE. HE WAS A GREAT SPORTSMAN.”
HIS NAME IS INSCRIBED ON A BRONZE PLAQUE TO HULL TEACHERS KILLED DURING THE WAR, AT THE CITY COUNCIL GUILDHALL.
UNMARRIED. HE LEFT THREE BROTHERS WHO ALSO SERVED IN FRANCE. TWO OF THESE WERE KILLED.
PRIVATE, ARTHUR FREDERICK WILKINSON, 44TH CANADIANS, KILLED AT PASSCHENDAELE, ON 27/10/1917, AGED 22, AND DRIVER, WILLIAM SHEPHARD WILKINSON, KILLED IN ACTION, ON 19/09/1917, AGED 19. THEIR DETAILS ARE ALL RECORDED IN THE DE RUVIGNY ROLL OF HONOUR, VOLUME 4. THEIR NAMES ARE ALSO RECORDED ON THE SUTTON VILLAGE WAR MEMORIAL.
