Railway Troops badge

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Named after his father a local saw mill worker, William Teasdale was born on 9th July 1884 in Burnopfield, the second of eight children (John, Rachael, Isabella, Elisha, Elizabeth, Alice, Jane) born to his mother Jane (nee Grundy). At the time of the 1891 census William and his sister Ellen were staying with their Uncle Elisha and paternal grandmother in Hobson, whilst their parents and the rest of the family were listed as living in Newcastle. Ten years later the family were all together and living in Sheep Hill, Tanfield, where young William was working as a groom, but he was later to follow in his father’s footsteps and work with wood.

Married in 1907 to Emily Rebecca Archer from Gateshead, their first child Esme was born the following year while they were living in Newcastle. In March 1913 William left for Canada arriving in Halifax and crossing into the USA in order to travel west to Alberta. Settling in Edmonton, Emily and the two children, Esme and Ernest, followed fourteen months later, crossing the Atlantic on the Teutonic, the same ship as William.

May 1916 saw William enlisting in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in their home town of Edmonton, becoming Private 279618 in the 218th Overseas Battalion under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. K. "Peace River Jim" Cornwall. After some initial training at Sarcee Camp in Calgary the battalion sailed to England in February 1917 on board the SS Southland, and on arrival was transferred to the Canadian Railway Troops depot, based at Purfleet in Surrey.

At the beginning of April Private Teasdale was drafted to 6th Battalion CRT and joined them in Gombremetz, France in the middle of the month. Canadian Railway Troops were considered as non-combatant troops and were unarmed for most of their service at the front, their main function was laying tracks, digging ditches and any other job required to build railway lines. It was whilst working on some track near Marcoing on 30th November 1917 that Private Teasdale was reported missing after heavy machine gun fire and shelling. He was later presumed to have died on or after that date.

William Teasdale is remembered in Greenhead on G27.01 and G27.02

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sapper Teasdale