Private Willie Uttley aged 33

Private Willie Uttley aged 33

Willie Uttley was born in 1885 to James and Eliza Uttley. He was one of five children, he had an older brother Sam and three sisters Sarah, Annie and Alice. In 1911, the family was living in one of the houses behind Broadfold Hall.

All the family worked in Oats Royd Mill apart from older brother Sam, occupation Tailor and who lived in the house next to the Woodman inn in Booth. And Willie who is a quarryman for Wilson and Haigh at Mount Tabor. Willie’s mother Eliza died a year before Willie in 1917 aged 66. One of his school friends was Issac Rayner who is also commemorated on the Luddenden and Midgley War Memorial.

Issac and Willie were three years apart in age, and lived 2 doors down from each other. Willie and his brother Sam both joined up in 1916. His brother Sam survived the war, joining the Royal Flying Corps (later to become the RAF) but we have no records of where he served apart from one mention in the Halifax Courier of him being stationed in Sheffield in 1918. Sam returned to Booth after the war to continue his profession as a tailor and lived the rest of his life in Booth.

He died in 1944 and is buried in the Methodist chapel graveyard at Goitside alongside his family. Willie was conscripted to the Durham Light Infantry in March 1916 and went to France in July 1917. At some stage he was transferred to the Labour Corps probably because of his age and as a quarryman he would have been used to digging and eventually to the 13th East Lancashire Regiment.

The war diaries for the 13th East Lancashire regiment show that he was involved in action near the village of Vieux Berquin, close to the Belgian border. His unit had been involved in an advance into enemy territory, they were digging in to their new position when an artillery shell exploded nearby, killing Willie. Here is the Halifax Courier report:

He is one of almost 1500 British Troops buried at the Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension on the edge of the village and as its name suggests it is next to the village cemetery. The village is very close to the Belgium border. Ypres is only a few miles to the North East and the coast at Dunkirk to the North. It is a very flat landscape and nothing like his childhood home. Fifty of the graves in the cemetery are from May 1940, the time of the evacuation from Dunkirk. The majority of the rest are from July and August 1918, with lots of Australian graves amongst the British troops.

Willie was one of ten soldiers buried at Ottersteene who fell on the 23rd Aug, five being from his own regiment.

He is remembered on the Booth Chapel Memorial.

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