Yarm 1914

According to CWGC he died 27 Sep 1915 while the Yarm Burial Register says 29 Sep 1915. In any event he was 33 and was the husband of the late Susannah Daniel. His occupation when he died was “Army Pensioner”. He was buried in Yarm Cemetery on 1 Oct 1915

In 1891 when William was 8 he was living with his widowed mother Mary and Sister Annie aged 6 in Taylors Yard in Yarm. By 1901 Annie was a housemaid living with Hutchinson family in the Market Place in Northallerton. Joseph Armstrong Hutchinson was a General Medical Practitioner in the town. William had enlisted in the army on 6th August 1900 and was in the Sheffield Barracks with the Yorkshire Regiment. In 1908 he left the army and married Susannah Kemp on 15th May 1905 at St Jude South Shields and by 1911 was living as a colliery joiner above ground at 3 room Black House Terrace in Pelton. Their first child had died and the couple were bringing up thier daughter of 8 months named Gertrude Ellen. He must have found life outside the army hard as he signed up for a further four years with the Yorkshires in 1912.

There is some comnfusion in the records as he is sometimes erroneously recored as William Daniels. The WW1 medal roll index card for William Daniels corrects the error. It indicates that William disembarked with the British Expeditionary Force on 14 November 1914. He was discharged on 5 May 1915 as no longer physically fit for war service (nephritis). His mother was living in Carlton Terrace in Yarm. Suzannah was living at 26 Lawson Street in Ferryhill. His medical record of 6th March 1915 indicated that his nephritis occured shortly after arriving in France due to chill and wet conditions in the trenches. The Medical Board on 9th March at 1st Western General Hospital, Fazakerley in Liverpool indicated the disability was permanent.

Trench nephritis, inflamation of teh kidney, was a serious problem for the Allies, leading to 35,000 casualties in the British and 2,000 in the American forces. There were also hundreds of deaths as was the case here. The condition was treated in line with pre-war regimens designed for acute nephritis. No significant preventative methods were implemented for trench nephritis, as there was no consensus regarding causation. The medical response to trench nephritis was largely ineffective, with medical commentators recognizing that there had been a lack of medical progress.

William's grave stone is to be found in Yarm Cemetery

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Yarm 1914 Research ________________

The Yarm 1914 Commemoration Group is carrying out research on the soldiers listed. We are finding where they lived in Yarm and will represent the findings in a wall of poppies presentation. More details will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and this web site. If you have any information please contact us. Left click on the picture below.