Carole Fife has provided the following:
William was born in Gateshead in 1889, the eldest son of Thomas, a bar manager in a public house, and his wife Mary. They lived at 308, High Street, Gateshead, but by 1911 they were living at 28, Richmond Street, Gateshead, where Thomas was a van man for the railway, but William was unemployed at the time of the census. I don't know whether the whole family moved to Bedlington Station or just William and his brother James, but as their names appear on the Bedlington Coal Company's Roll of Honour they must have both been working down the pit when they enlisted. William enlisted at the same time as his brother, they both joined the same Battalion, and although they died within three days of each other they are buried in the same cemetery only a row apart. From the date of his death and the fact that St. Sever was a permanent hospital away from the front lines it would appear that William was wounded in the run-up to the Battle of the Somme and died of his wounds.
He and his brother James are remembered in Bedlington Station on B163.04 and at Bedlington on B15.06
