BORN HULL 1886. SON OF WILLIAM & ANNIE WILSON (LAUNDRESS), OF 30 NEWTON STREET, HULL.
HIS WIFE, LILLY WILSON, LIVED AT 33, ROSAMOND STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND 7, DURBAN STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). A TIMBER YARD, DEAL CARRIER. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED ON 27/03/1918, AGED 31. HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON THE HESSLE ROLL OF HONOUR, ALL SAINTS PARISH CHURCH.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE WILLIAM BARNETT WILSON 11/272. Born in summer 1886, William was the eldest of four children to William and Annie Wilson. A Deal Carrier in a Timber Yard by trade, he married Lilly McDonald in 1907 and the couple lived at 33 Rosamond Street, Hessle Road, Hull. He enlisted at Hull City Hall in the second week of September 1914 joining the fledgling 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. A veteran of Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood William was killed in action on 27th March 1918 during the early days of the German Spring Offensive when the Pals were instrumental in stemming the tide of the enemy advance. Thousands perished in the desperate struggle to form a new line strong enough to hold, and because they were surrendering ground, most never received a proper burial and, like William, are commemorated only as names etched into stone on the Arras Memorial. William Barnett Wilson was 31 years old.
