John William Will 1883-1917

A short history

Born on 9 January 1883 in Leeds, Jack's antecedents have been traced back to the early 18th century. His parents were Johann Georg Will and Anna Katherina Fex of Langenhain, a rural district to the west of Frankfurt. Married in 1873, Johann and Anna probably had Katerina (aka Kate or Catherine) there in 1873.

It is not known why they emigrated to Bradford later that year. Johann found employment as a farm labourer.

Edward was born in Bradford in early 1874, then Henry in 1875. There was then a 6 year gap to Laurence, born in Leeds in 1881. Sadly, he only lived for 2 months.

After John William’s birth in 1883, the family moved back to Bradford, where they lived in streets off Otley Road, near the Canal Road junction. This, the Undercliffe area, was close to the stuff warehouses of Little Germany, where Jack is thought to have worked as a roller.

By 1908, he was living in Ripon Street in Undercliffe and working as a draper. He married Elma Bateson at St Augustine’s Parish Church on 15 April that year.

By 1911 he was a wholesale draper.

He died on 3 May 1917 at Gavrelle, France.

A Soldier

At the beginning of the War, he was, according to the family, a Recruiting Agent who gave talks to audiences of young men.

Recruiting Agents were not serving members of the armed forces, but retired soldiers, pensioners and ordinary civilians. It is likely that they were volunteers, though by 1915, when the initial enthusiasm for war had worn off, those who worked in recruitment offices, and perhaps in lecture halls, could claim a financial reward for every recruit they processed.

Jack Will must have delivered some of the 20,000 speeches that were promoted by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, which was established in 1914 to persuade men to enlist and create a huge volunteer army to fight a war that might, as Kitchener feared, last many years.

He would also have been involved in the group recruitment drive that resulted in the creation of Bradford’s first Pals Battalion, which would later become known as the 16th (Service) Battalion, (1st Bradford), Prince of Wales's Own, West Yorkshire Regiment and come under the orders of the 93rd Brigade, 31st Division. It was a volunteer unit that was sanctioned by the government, but paid for out of donations collected in Bradford.

Private John Will’s army number was 16/87, an indication, perhaps, that he was the 87th recruit to the 16th Battalion.

There is a family story that although Jack’s job gave him exemption from war service, he decided he could not ask men to volunteer without doing so himself. Perhaps this meant that his work as a Recruiting Agent job gave him a moral exemption from military service, one that was accepted by the community because it was seen to be an essential part of the war effort. There was, of course, no legal requirement to enlist – conscription did not come into force until mid-1916.

There is another family story that he enlisted to get away from his wife, Elma. The story goes that she refused to have any more children; it could be that by 1914 their relationship was in difficulties.

Although it is not known exactly when Jack enlisted (his army record has been lost), the Pals Battalion began recruiting in September 1914 and underwent training in Skipton and Ripon, then Fovant (Salisbury) in 1915. The battalion travelled to Liverpool on 6 December that year and embarked on the Empress of Britain, a former transatlantic liner requisitioned and converted as a troopship.

Jack was not impressed with the accommodation, writing that it had “a low deck, terribly stuffy..” and “..it was not till we prepared to settle down that we realised the bad conditions we were to sail under.“

He would have been even less impressed had he known how accident prone the Empress was: in 1912, just 2 weeks after the Titanic, it had survived an encounter with an iceberg and, 3 months later in thick fog, it had rammed and sunk a collier called Helvetia on the St Lawrence River. Then, 8 days into the voyage from Liverpool, on the night of 14 December 1915, while navigating without lights (mandatory in wartime) she hit a French troopship off Malta, cutting it in two. The vessel, the SS Djurjura, sank and two stokers were killed.

The Empress of Britain made it to Alexandria on 21 December, when the Pals discovered that their destination was Egypt. They spent a pleasant month sightseeing, before marching to Kantara, at the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal, and then to a desert outpost 7 miles to the east called Point or Hill 70. The battalion’s job was to defend the caravan routes between Egypt and the countries of the Levant. Living under canvas in the desert would have been uncomfortable: heat, dust and flies. Water was severely rationed: a gallon of water per man per day. Food was also restricted: a tin of condensed milk to share among 16 men. The monotonous diet was relieved a little when the Pals made friends with some Mysore Lancers, who were camped nearby: the Indians were always ready to exchange a bowl of curry for a pack of cigarettes. Writing to Elma, Jack described them as: “fine, reliable and honourable fighting men who are totally loyal to the British crown.” The battalion’s chief activity, after digging trenches and visiting neighbours, was stopping the locals from stealing their kit.

Photographs

The battalion shipped to Marseille on 29 February 1916 onboard the SS Minneapolis (on her return voyage to Alexandria on 23 March 1916, she was torpedoed off Malta and later sank), then went by train to Pont Remy, a station on the River Somme, arriving on 9 March. Later, they marched to billets at Bus-les-Artois.

The whole brigade moved to Gezaincourt, near Doullens, on June 19th 1916. Here they began a special course of training to prepare them for the coming Somme offensive. They practised going over the top, leaving trenches using assault ladders and the principle of attacking in wave formations etc. While at Gezaincourt, Major G. S. Guyon of the Royal Fusiliers arrived to command the 16th Battalion.

The battalion first engaged the enemy at the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.

It did not go well for the British. Churchill later wrote that the German positions there were “the strongest and most perfectly defended position in the world.”

The death toll was terrible.

It is estimated that 515 out of 699 men and officers in the battalion were killed or wounded.

It is not known if Jack Will was involved in the action. Since he survived, he may have been held in reserve.

Back home, it is interesting to note, the Bradford Daily Telegraph of 7 July reported “very few deaths”, reflecting War Office propaganda. As long lists of casualties began to appear, the paper (on 18 July) noted that “the noblest youth of the country walked open-eyed to their deaths on the ridges of the Somme.”

Post-Somme diary

The remnants of the 16th Battalion marched north to Lestram and then to Les Lobes. In early September 1916 the battalion was in the right sub-section in the Neuve Chapelle section of trenches.

On 27 September the men went into front line trenches in the Neuve Chappelle area, and were subjected to a bombardment and also suffered a raid by German troops. 6 were killed and 42 wounded of whom 4 died later.

On 3 October 3 1916, the 31st Division was taken out of the line and moved to the Bethune area. After a brief respite in billets in the town, the 16th Battalion marched to La Miquellerie.

On 7 October, the 16th Battalion marched on to billets in Famechon.

On 30 October, the 16th Battalion proceeded to billets in Thievres.

November 13 1916 marked the beginning of the British offensive on both banks of the River Ancre, a tributary of the Somme.

On 31 December 1916, the 16th Battalion moved to Coigneux to rest.

On the evening of 26 February 1917, the 16th Battalion received orders to probe German defences at Rossignol Wood (between Gommecourt and Puisieux). Unfortunately, poor intelligence meant the men were unaware of an enemy gun emplacement in the Wood.

They were cut down, losing 76 officers and men with 150 missing.

The 16th Battalion were relieved by the 13th Battalion (York and Lancaster Regiment) and proceeded to a camp near Coigneux on the Courcellers Road.

At the end of March 1917, the entire 93rd Brigade moved back to the Bethune area.

On 28 April the 93rd Division went back north to the Scarpe valley and relieved the 63rd Naval Brigade in the Gavrelle sector, about 4 miles ENE of Arras.

On 28 April the 93rd Division went back north to the Scarpe valley and relieved the 63rd Naval Brigade in the Gavrellle sector, about 4 miles ENE of Arras. The 16th Battalion was positioned in trenches between Gavrelle and Oppy, roughly where an electricity sub-station stands today. It was commanded by Lt Col AC Croydon.

Jack Will would have been in one of four Companies of platoons: A, B, C or D. This photograph taken in Bradford in 1914 shows him in the 3rd row with other Pals in D Company.

3rd Battle of the Scarpe

The 3rd Battle of the Scarpe began early on the morning of 3 May 1917.     See Map: Gavrelle Sector

At 3:45 the battalion advanced, under cover of an artillery barrage, on enemy trenches in the Windmill area (just south of Oppy). Unfortunately, no-man’s land was bathed in bright moonlight, making the German gunners’ aim easier.

At 3:49 an intense enemy barrage was directed at the entire front line, accompanied by heavy machine gun and rifle fire. This artillery barrage would go on for another 8 hours.

C and D Companies were in the first attack waves, passing through the enemy wire without difficulty. D Company got to the first enemy trench, well ahead of C Company, at 4am.

The men took prisoners and began to consolidate the trench. The other Companies followed, a little behind schedule.

At 5am, D Company saw 100 enemy soldiers approaching. Thinking they were surrendering, the Germans were waved on. But they opened fire and a skirmish ensued.

However, by 7:30 the battalion, led by D Company, had consolidated its position in the newly won trenches.

Unfortunately, the Germans mounted an effective counter attack, coming in waves down the ridge.

Amid heavy losses, the order was given to retreat. Most of A Company’s casualties were suffered during the withdrawal.

Nothing is known about how Jack Will met his death. Almost all the fatalities mentioned by name in the Battalion Diary were officers.

At 15:15, Brigade command ordered that a composite battalion be formed of the remnants of the 16th and 18th Battalions, under the command of Croydon.

He had at least achieved the objective of getting his men back to their original positions.

The capture of Oppy Wood was not achieved until 28 June 1917.

The Third Battle of the Scarpe resulted in the British Army suffering nearly 6,000 men killed for little gain.

In addition to John William Will, the 16th Battalion lost 17 men listed as Killed in Action, with 176 listed as Missing.

Total casualties were: 11 officers and 303 men.

Private J W Will is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in the centre of Arras near the Citadel. His name appears on a list in Bay 4 of the Memorial. The usual reason for inscribing a soldier’s name on a list rather than giving them a headstone was that the remains were never found, or never recovered, or could not be identified at the time.

Sources

Events I Remember – a diary written in Egypt by Jack Will

The Bradford Pals (with extracts from the Battalion Diary) – Ralph Hudson published by Bradford Libraries, 2000

The Great War Forum at www.greatwarforum.org

Thornbury Roots at www.thornburyroots.co.uk

Wikipedia (for vessels)