Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
William Linsley was born 1876 in Ferryhill, County Durham, one of five children, 3 boys and 2 girls, born to John Linsley of Lanchester and his wife Jane Crowther born 1845, a native of Ferryhill. They were married in Stockton, March 1868. His father John worked all his life as a coal miner and was retired by the age of 71 in 1901. William’s mother died in January 1911 and his father February 5th 1911 at Elm House, Parker Terrace, Ferryhill Village, leaving to his eldest son, Robert, the sum of £677 15s 10d. William went to live as a border with the Davies family of 4, Hallgarth Terrace, Ferryhill continuing to work as a coal hewer.
In 1914 William enlisted in Sunderland as Private 16587 assigned to the Alexandra Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion, under orders of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division. The battalion could be found at Aldershot in January 1915 and Grantham in April. There were severe shortages of arms, ammunition and equipment, it was not until October 1915 that the artillery commenced firing practice. They moved to Salisbury Plain a few weeks later and made ready, they sailed in two waves to La Havre and Boulogne and concentrated near Ailly le Haut Clocher, near Amiens by November 12th 1915. in December of that year the 2nd Battalion transferred to the 30th Division and remained on the Western Front for the duration of WW1. 1916 they saw action at the Battle of Albert and Transloy Ridges and Battles of the Somme. 1917 the pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line at the First and Second Battle of the Scarpe, phases of the Arras Offensive, the Battle of Pilckem Ridge and a phase of the Third Battles of Ypres. 1918 they participated in the First Battles of the Somme until mid May when they were transferred to the 32nd Brigade, 11th Division participating in the Second Battles of Arras and the pursuit to the Selle, a phase of the Battles of the Hindenburg Line. During his service William was awarded the Military Medal and Bar an award for gallantry and devotion to duty when under fire in battle on land, the bar indicates a subsequent award. Private 16587 William Linsley M. M., 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was killed in action November 2nd 1918, only 9 days before the declaration of Armistice, he was 42 years old and single. He is interred at Querenaing Communal Cemetery, Department of the North, France, grave A3. The majority of the casualties were buried by their comrades late October and early November 1918. His brother paid 3 shillings and 2 pence for an addition inscription on his gravestone, it reads, “REST IN PEACE”.
Probate was settled, with Will, April 7th 1919, in Durham. His brother Robert Linsley of 7 Paxton Street, Dean Bank, Ferry Hill inherited from his brother the sum of £344 12s 1d.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
William Lindsay is remembered at Chilton on C107.01, C107.04 and C107.12 and as William Linsley at Ferryhill on F38.02
