Heslop’s Local Advertiser
Railway Dugouts Burial Ground
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
William Dunnett was born at Hebburn, County Durham in 1894, one of 7 known children, 5 sons and 2 daughters. Their father James Dunnett born 1865 at Edinburgh, Scotland married Mary Hannah Embleton of Usworth, County Durham, born 1868, in the district of South Shields in 1892. James was employed as a ship yard labourer for over 20 years, the family lived at Swinburne Terrace, Heworth until the time of his wife Mary Hannah’s (known as Hannah) death in 1910 when William was 16 years old. His widowed father, now working as a coal miner, went to live with his parents William and Elizabeth Dunnett at 27, Brack Terrace, Bill Quay (1911) taking with him his youngest son Robert aged 9 years. William (17), his brother Thomas (15) both employed at the brick works and sister Annie (4) were taken in by his maternal aunt Christina and her husband Thomas Burdis who were living with their 3 children next door at 28, Brack Terrace.
On the outbreak of war William Dunnett enlisted at Gateshead in 1914 assigned as Private 2297 Durham Light Infantry, 9th (Territorial Force) Battalion, G Coy. The battalion as part of the Northumbrian Division moved to Boldon Colliery in early August, then Ravensworth Park returning to Newcastle-upon-Tyne by October. Once mobilisation the battalion along with the other territorials left for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force landing at Boulogne April 17th-18th 1915, Private Dunnett joined his regiment in the field June 27th. The Germans had attacked Ypres in Belgium, April 22nd and the 9th Battalion as part of the 151st Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division remained on the salient until the beginning of the Battles of the Somme in France, July 1916.
Private 2297 William Dunnett Durham Light Infantry was wounded, exact date unknown, and taken to the Advanced Dressing Station placed in the dugouts and a farm nicknamed by the troops as Transport Farm, where he died of his wounds, February 24th 1916. He was interred at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm), grave I. M. 13. situated 2 kilometres south east of Ieper, West Vlaanderen, Belgium. He was 22 years old and single.
As his official guardian, his uncle Thomas Burdis received all monies due to him, a pension and his awards of the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
His father James Dunnett died aged 72 years, in the district of Gateshead in 1937.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
His death was reported in Heslop's Local Advertiser 22/04/1916:
"Private William Dunnett, died of wounds in France on Feb. 24th, aged 23 years. Son of James and the late Hannah Dunnett, Bill Quay."
He is remembered at Bill Quay on B119.01 at Wardley on W97.01 and at Heworth H92.03
He is also remembered in The DLI Book of Remembrance page 35
