Pte 15707 William John Waldron

• Age: 25
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 3rd July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

William John Waldron was born in early 1891 in Liverpool, the youngest son of Christopher Waldron and Mary Emily Fishwick, who married in St. Nicholas Liverpool on 1^st July 1877.  His father was from County Down, and his mother from Manchester.  They had five children: Christopher, Mary, James (who died aged 1), William John, and Harriet.

In 1891 the family is living at 100 Arkwright Street, Everton. His father is a labourer in a sugar house. They have three children; William is two months old.

In 1901 they are at 12 David Street, Everton. His father is a sugar house labourer.  They have four children: Christopher 19, Mary 16, William is 10, and Harriet 4.

By 1911 they are living at 25 Jefferson Street, Liverpool, where they remain for many years.  His father is a dock labourer; William, 20, is a general labourer, sister Harriet is 17.  Also in the household is a visitor, John Waldron.   

William enlisted in Liverpool on 1^st September 1914, as Private 15707, No.3 Company, 17^th (Pals) Bn., King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, giving his age as 23 years and 210 days and his occupation as clerk.  He is described as being 5’ 7 and a half inches tall, weighing 132 lbs, with grey eyes and brown hair.  He gives his next of kin as his father Christopher Waldron, 25 Jefferson Street, Liverpool, and his religion as Church of England.

After training locally near Liverpool the battalion arrived at Belton Park Camp in Lincolnshire on 29^th April, where they stayed until 4^th September.  After final infantry training  on Salisbury Plain, William shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on  7^th November 1915.  In the new year the Pals battalions take up position in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy.   After specialist training at Abbeville for the ‘Big Push’ the battalion is in the front line near Maricourt.  On 1^st July 1916 the Battle of the Somme begins, the bloodiest day in British military history.  The 17^th Bn takes its objectives with fewer than 17 killed.  The fighting continues, and on the 3^rd July the battalion war diary records 8 Other Ranks killed and 24 wounded.  William Waldron was one of those lost that day aged 25 years.  He was killed in action, his body was originally buried near Maricourt  but was subsequently lost, and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His father died in 1918, aged 72.

William earned his three medals which his mother signed for on 12^th June 1919 and 2^nd September 1921.   

William’s pension went to his mother Mary.  She died in 1933, at age 79, still living at 25 Jefferson St, Liverpool.

His sister Mary married and had a son she named William John.

William is commemorated on the family headstone at Kirkdale Cemetery where the family have placed the epitaph:

"THY WILL BE DONE" 

He is also commemorated on Ogden’s Tobacco Memorial, Anfield.

We currently have no further information on William John Waldron, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.