Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Booke was wonderfully good and patient and brave, and lay very quietly in the corner bed of the hospital tent. There was always a smile from him whenever I came to see him, and I do not think anyone realised how bad he was through his bravery. He was a very good boy, too, and, as he told me once, never forgot his prayers, and was trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ. He ought to have gone home on a hospital ship on the 30th, but another operation was necessary, which prevented this. This was a sad disappointment to him, but again no one could have been braver or more patient. And then on the 1st came the sudden collapse. I was suddenly fetched to his side in the morning, and had just time to whisper a prayer in his ear and to feel him squeeze my hand when he became unconscious, and very peacefully passed away at 2.15 p.m." He was buried the next day in the Cemetery in the Sepulchre des Rouen (Grave No. 58). [Illustration: =Frank Lee Wilkinson.=] =WILKINSON, JOHN ROTHES MARLOW=, B.A., Lieut., 4th Battn. Middlesex Regt., eldest _s._ of the late Rev. Henry Marlow Wilkinson, Vicar of Milford, Lymington, Hants, by his wife, Florence Amy (Milford Corner, Milford-on-Sea), dau. of the late John Kemp-Welch, of Sopley Park, Hants; _b._ the Vicarage, Milford-on-Sea, 17 Oct. 1887; educ. Winchester College, and Worcester College, Oxford (1907-1911, B.A., Capt. of the College Boat Club); gazetted 2nd Lieut. to the 4th Middlesex, 22 March, 1911, and promoted Lieut. 10 Oct. 1913; left for France with the Expeditionary Force, Aug. 1914, and was killed in action at Oburg, near Mons, on the 23rd; _unm._ A Private of C Coy., 4th Middlesex, wrote: "On Sunday, 23 Aug., we were entrenched in front of a convent, when Capt. ... gave Lieut. Wilkinson an order to take half his platoon (two sections) to reinforce 'A' Coy. This Coy. was at the left of our position and was being hard pressed. We took up position under heavy fire at a group of houses. Your son went into one of the houses, and was heard directing the fire of his two sections through the skylight in the roof. He directed his fire so well that he forced the Germans to retire from his front. It was from this house that he saw overwhelming numbers of Germans coming through the wood to his front. The Germans came on again until they were within 200 yards. Lieut. Wilkinson then came out of the house into the trench. It was here that he got the order to retire. He got the order twice, but would not take it, as he thought it was not an official order. Eventually he got the order from the G.O.C. to retire. It was then I noticed he was limping. To retire we had to go through barbed wire; here we got separated owing to the heavy shell and rifle fire. I am very sorry to say that I was the only man of those two sections to get away from that place. No officers could give me any information of Lieut. Wilkinson. I reported to the C.O. what had happened and told him that Lieut. Wilkinson was a very brave man. He replied, 'Yes, I know that, and I am very sorry to have lost him.'... I must say your son was a man in every sense of the word. I think he was as brave a gentleman as one could meet here. I told this to Capt.... I think I have an idea of a brave officer, as I went through the South African War and have eight clasps to my medal." [Illustration: =John R. M. Wilkinson.=] =WILKINSON, LEONARD RICHARD=, Rifleman, No. 2240, C Coy., 1/9th (Queen Victoria's Rifles) The London Regt. (T.F.), 2nd _s._ of George Henry Wilkinson, of Star Mills, Paper Maker, by his wife, Annie, dau. of William E. Pepper; _b._ Camberwell, 22 Dec. 1890; enlisted on the outbreak of war in Aug. 1914, served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders and was killed in action during the severe fighting for Hill 60, near Ypres, on 24 April, 1915; _unm._ =WILKINSON, WILLIAM=, Stoker, 1st Class (R.F.R., Ch. B. 6945), S.S. 101506, H.M.S. Cressy; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =WILLAN, SAMUEL=, Private, No. 11727, 2nd Battn. Coldstream Guards; _b._ co. Lancaster; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders; killed in action at Cuinchy, 3 Feb. 1915. =WILLETS, FREDERICK=, Private, No. 7965, 2nd Battn. The Royal Scots, 2nd _s._ of Arthur Willetts, by his wife, Mary, dau. of Thomas Bennett; _b._ Aston, Birmingham, 7 Aug. 1883; educ. Vicarage Road there; was employed as a Stove Fitter; enlisted in the Royal Scots, 13 Feb. 1902; served three years with the Colours and nine years in the Reserve; went to the Front, Aug. 1914; was wounded and taken a prisoner at Haines, and died a prisoner of war at Erfurt, Germany, 16 Feb. 1915, and was buried there. He _m._ at Aston, Birmingham, 1907, Nellie (No. 2, Back, 119, Park Road, Aston, Birmingham), dau. of William Whadauck, and had a son, Frederick, _b._ 26 Jan. 1908. =WILLIAMS, ALBERT=, Stoker, 1st Class, K. 3806 (Ports.), H.M.S. Aboukir; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =WILLIAMS, ALBERT ERNEST=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 4015), 218031, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914. =WILLIAMS, ARTHUR MONTAGU=, Solicitor, Lieut. Machine Gun Section, 7th (Robin Hood) Battn. Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt.) (T.F.), only _s._ of the late Arthur Williams, of 109, Forest Road, Nottingham, Solicitor, by his wife, Mary, dau. of the late Thomas Morley, of 46, Addison Street, Nottingham; _b._ Nottingham, 21 Dec. 1883; educ. Nottingham Boys' High School; served his articles with Capt. J. A. H. Green, admitted a Solicitor in 1905, and was in practice in Nottingham and had lately been a partner in the firm of Messrs. Browne, Son & Williams. He had joined the Robin Hoods as a private on leaving school in 1900, and became a 2nd Lieut. when the Territorial Act came into operation, and was gazetted Lieut. 8 June, 1913. On the outbreak of war he volunteered with the Battn. for foreign service, went to France, 25 Feb. 1915, and was killed in action at Kemmel, 15 June, 1915; _unm._ He was buried in Kemmel Churchyard. One of his men (Private T. Linney, 1867) wrote: "On the night of 15 June, 1915, at about 9.30 p.m. the Germans thought to make a surprise attack on our trenches south of Ypres, by first of all blowing up our trenches and then by violently bombarding our position by artillery and hand grenades. The 8th Battn. Sherwood Foresters, were in the trenches at the time, and were expecting to be relieved that night by the 7th Battn. Sherwood Foresters, this accounting for the officers of the 7th being in the trenches in the afternoon to view the positions. After the violent bombardment the Germans tried to charge the trench, and this being the first severe attack the 8th Battn. had been in they did not know which way to turn or what to do; already they had lost a large number of men and officers and were naturally panic stricken, when Lieut. Williams came to the rescue. Already he had been to fetch a wounded officer, Lieut. Dobson, in, and seen him saf |