William Henry Toon
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Wiliam Henry Toon was the son of Agnes Toon who later married his father, William Stanley. William Stanley was born in Thringstone, Leicestershire, in about 1861. Agnes Toon was born in 1858 also in Thringstone, the daughter of James Toon and his wife Jane (née Halfpenny). Agnes' family lived in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, until 1881 when her parents were living in Skegby, Nottinghamshire, and Agnes was in Mansfield, a domestic servant in the household of Francis and Henrietta Sanderson. Agnes had two sons before her marriage to William Stanley in 1888 (J/F/M Mansfield): William Henry Toon b. Ripley 1883 (A/M/J Belper) and John James S [Stanley] Toon b. Skegby birth registered 1887 (J/F/M Mansfield). William's surname is given as Toon on records but his brother John took the surname Stanley until at least the time of his marriage. Agnes and William had three children after their marriage, Amy b. 1888, George b. 1889 and Jane b. 1892, who were all born in Skegby. In 1891 William (28) a coal miner, Agnes (32) and their four children William Toon (8), John (4), Amy (2) and George (1) were living in Stanton Hill, Nottinghamshire, with Agnes' widowed mother, Jane Toon, a postmistress. Also in the household were Jane's youngest child, John James (16), her brother James Halfpenny (48) a coal miner and a lodger, George Stanley (21 b. Leicestershire) who was also a coal miner. William and Agnes' daughter, Jane, was born the following year. By 1901 Agnes was postmistress at the Post Office, High Street, Skegby, and living there with her husband Stanley and their children William a coal miner, John, George, Amy and Jane (8). Also in the household were Agnes' niece, Ethel Mary Toon (19) a domestic servant, the daughter of Agnes' brother Edward, and Agnes's uncle, James Halfpenny, described on the census as an invalid. William and Agnes, postmistress, were still living at the Post Office in 1911; only William and his sister Jane were still living at home. John James had married Annie Bamford in 1909 (A/M/J Mansfield-John James S Toon/Bamsford) and in 1911 they and their daughter Jane (8m) were in Sutton in Ashfield, lodgers in the home of Arthur and Mary Fowler. George may have married Mary Elizabeth Vardy in 1910 and were also living in Sutton in Ashfield with their son George (nine weeks). Amy had married William Needham in 1908 (J/F/M) and were living in Dalesforth, Mansfield, with their daughter Agnes Irene (9m). Agnes Stanley died the following year (1912 J/A/S Mansfield) aged about 54. William Stanley may have died in 1931. On his death, William's four siblings were his legatees.
10th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment (Grimsby Chums), formerly Leicestershire Regiment (12460). William was killed in action on 29 October 1917. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium (Panel 35 to 37). CWGC - Tyne Cot Memorial (extract): 'The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. 'The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. 'There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele ... 'The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields.'
William was related to Harold Phillips Toon (KIA 1916) and Richard Edward Toon (KIA 1916). William's mother Agnes Stanley née Toon was the sister of Richard's father, Edward Toon. Edward and Agnes were the children of James Toon, brother of Alpheus Toon, Harold's grandfather. See Harold and Richard's records on this Roll of Honour. WMA 21919. Grimsby St James. Roll of Honour 1914-1919 The Lincolnshire regiment 10th (Service) Battalion Grimsby - Toon William Registers of Soldiers' Effects: his legatees were his siblings, James Stanley, George Stanley, Amy Needham and Jane Stanley.
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