William was born in Stony Stratford, Bucks and was a wheelwright in 1911, living 22 South Rd, Saffron Walden with wife Sarah Ann nee Swann who he married in 1908, CWGC certificate has widow’s address as High Street, Harston, and in a later census, in Sheepshead Row.
He joined the Army Service Corps and was attached to 41st Field Ambulance in the Mesopotamian Campaign, a gruelling trek across the desert fighting the Turks. While the enemy was a danger, disease and heat exhaustion took even more lives. Two days before William’s death in Baghdad on 22 July, the temperature in Baghdad was 123º F (50.6ºC).
He was buried at Baghdad North Gate military cemetery XXC 12. His widow requested that his gravestone be inscribed ‘In the midst of life we are in death.’
His name was added to the Harston War memorial in 2016.
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