L/Cpl 23664 William Hemming

There are no records giving direct evidence as to the identity of this soldier. The only clue is his father’s name, John H., from Soldiers’ Effects. Unfortunately no pension card has been found, which would give the address of the next of kin. A search of birth and census records suggests this soldier is the son of John Henry Hemming and Eliza Gertrude (née Harding), who married in 1892.  No other William Hemming with a father by the name of John has been found.  No civil records for William are found after 1911, which lends support to his being the soldier who was killed in 1917.  Any evidence to support or refute this theory would be welcomed.

 

William Bernard Hemming was born in the December quarter of 1893 and baptised on 05th November in St. Mark’s Church, Leamington Priors, his parents’ residence given as New Milverton, and his father’s occupation as coachman.  He had an older brother John Henry, born in 1892, and younger siblings Charles Harold, 1896, and Gertrude Agnes, in 1898. 

 

In 1901 the family is living at 5 Binswood Street, Leamington.  His father is 36, a domestic coachman, his mother is 33, John is 8: William 7, Charles 4, and Gertrude 2. Another son, Frederick Ernest, was born in 1902.

 

His mother Eliza died in 1908 (civil registration gives her age as 42), and more tragedy followed when Frederick died the following year, at the age of 7.

 

In 1911 his widowed father, 46, with three children at home, is living at 8 Trinity Street, Leamington.  His father is a domestic coachman, William is 17, a butcher’s assistant, Charles, 14, and Gertrude, 12, are at school.  His widowed maternal grandmother, Hannah Harding, 76, is living with them as housekeeper.

 

It is not known when or why William left Leamington for Lancashire.

He was living in Aughton at the time he enlisted in Liverpool. He joined the 18th Battalion and was serving as Lance Corporal 23664 when he was killed in action on 02nd April 1917. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for 21 months, enlisting in about July 1915.

The Battalion War Diary records that Private W. Hemming was attached to 21st Trench Mortar Battery when he was killed. 

His body was either not recovered or was subsequently lost as his name is recorded on the Arras Memorial in France. 

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).