William Wilkinson
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
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His medal index card states his guardian was Mrs Elizabeth Wilkinson of 34 Canal Street, Retford and children were Beatrice May born 9th September 1901, Joseph Edward born 7th May 1903, Maritana born 2nd November 1908 and Myrtle born 6th February 1913.
13367 Lance Corporal William Wilkinson enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) on 26 August 1914 and was posted to 9th battalion. The battalion arrived in France on 1 July 1916 and after spending time on the Arras front, moved to the Somme in preparation for The Battle of Thiepval. In the early hours of 26th September, the battalion moved into Constance Trench and at 10.15 am, commenced the movement into attack positions. At 12.45 pm under a protective barrage, the attack began and within three minutes all companies had taken the first objective. At 12.59 they attacked the second objective, Zollern Trench and by 1.45 pm, this was also taken although casualties had been high in the companies. 'C' company in reserve sent up reinforcements and Hessian trench was also taken and by 3.23 pm, all companies had consolidated. They had also taken hundreds of prisoners in the process. The battalion had though suffered high losses with over 90 killed in action and some 200 wounded. William was one of the 91 men killed that day and like the majority of the men has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France John Morse
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