Pte 48091 William King

• Age: 38
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 19th April 1917
• Commemorated at: Abbeville C C Ext
  Panel Ref: II.E.26

William was born in Liverpool in 1878, the son of James King and his wife Margaret (nee Pye) who were married on the 23rd November 1869 at St Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool. James was a widower and had previously been married to Jane Pye (Margaret’s sister) on the 30th January 1863 at St Philip's Church, Liverpool.

On the 1881 Census the family can be found at 48 Leeds Street (Shop), Liverpool. His mother, Margaret Pye, (Married) and her children Mary, James, Thomas and William are residing with her brother Thomas Pye and his wife Ann and their daughter Hannah.

On the 1891 Census the family has moved to 62 Leeds Street, Liverpool. His mother, Margaret, (Married) is with her children Mary, Thomas and William.

On the 1901 Census the family still reside at 62 Leeds Street, Margaret is now a widow and is with children Mary, Thomas and William and her brother Thomas Pye.

William King married Alice Forshaw on 22nd December 1907 at St Nicholas' Church, Liverpool.

On the 1911 Census the family are living at 2 Naylor Street, Liverpool. William and Alice with children Alexander Robert age 2 and Margaret age 1 . William was a Drain flushing water man for Liverpool Corporation. They also had a further daughter Mary born in 1911.

William enlisted in Liverpool and was serving as Private 48091 with the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment when he died of wounds.

He had been admitted to Hospital on 13th April 1917 with wounds to his arm, left thigh, head and chest. He was transferred by Ambulance Train from Warlincourt to Abbeville where he passed away on 19th April 1917, aged 38.

He now rests at Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension in France where his headstone bears the epitaph:

“PEACE PERFECT PEACE” 

For much of the First World War, Abbeville was headquarters of the Commonwealth lines of communication and No.3 BRCS, No.5 and No.2 Stationary Hospitals were stationed there variously from October 1914 to January 1920. The communal cemetery was used for burials from November 1914 to September 1916, the earliest being made among the French military graves. Abbeville Communal Cemetery contains 774 Commonwealth burials of First World War and 30 from the Second. The Extension contains 1,754 First World War burials and 348 from the Second. The Commonwealth sections of both cemetery and extension were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.