Pte 24391 William George Foster

William George Foster was born in 1882 in Beaminster, Dorset, the youngest son of Charles Foster and his wife Mary Jane (née Boatswain). His father, a widower, born in Hampshire and his mother born in Beaminster, married in 1872 in Dorset, his father’s occupation given as tailor. They had six children; William had older siblings Henry John, Charles, Ada, and Georgina, and a younger sister Clara.  The census of 1881, before William’s birth, shows his father, 54, occupation ex policeman, and his mother is 33.

 

William was baptised in Beaminster on 8th September,  his father’s occupation was shown as a publican. 

 

His father died aged 72 in Beaminster in 1890, when William was 7 or 8 years old. His widowed mother moved the family to South Wales, reason not known, but by 1891 Mary Jane, 42, is living at 5 Glanaman Road, Aberdare, Glamorgan.  John, 18, and Charles, 16, are coal miners. Georgina, 11, William, 9, and Clara, 7, are at school.

 

The family must have moved to the Liverpool area soon after the census, as his mother remarried to John Price In Toxteth Register Office in 1892. 

 

In 1901 William, 18, a joiner, is living at 48 Alma Vale, Great Crosby, with his mother, 53, stepfather John Price, 62, and stepbrother John Price, 22.

 

When he was 21, William married  Florence Primrose Usher, 20, on 1st August 1903 in St. Mary’s, Wavertree. He gives his address as Dryden Road, and occupation as plasterer. They had four children:  Ada Elizabeth in 1905, Edith Emily 1907, Clara Agnes 1909, and Charles William 1910.

 

In 1911 William and Florence are living with their two youngest children at 27 Endbutt Lane, Waterloo,  Great Crosby.  William is 28, employed as a builder’s plasterer, Florence is 27, Clara is 2 and Charles 1.  Their two older daughters, Ada, 5, and Edith, 3, are living with his mother, Mary Jane Price, 64, in Liscard, with William’s siblings Henry and Ada. 

 

His service record has not survived but we do know that William enlisted in Liverpool In the 19th (Pals) Bn., King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, as Private 24391. The 19th (3rd City) Battalion was formed in early September 1914 after Lord Derby’s call for Pals battalions. The 19th Bn trains at Sefton Park but is billeted at home until permanent barracks are built. In November 1914 the 19th moves to the purpose-built camp on the grounds of Lord Derby’s estate in Knowsley, near Liverpool. At the end of April the Pals battalions leave Liverpool for Belton Park Camp at Grantham in Lincolnshire to train with other brigades, and in September move to Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain for final infantry training before being sent to the front. 

 

William shipped to France from Folkestone with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 7th November 1915.

 

In the new year the Pals battalions take up positions in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy and in April are in the line near Maricourt. William survives the deadly months of 1916 on the Somme, Arras, and the fighting in the Ypres Salient in 1917, and the German Spring Offensive and the Hindenburg Line battles of 1918.

 

At some point, possibly after being wounded, William was transferred to the 13th Battalion of the K.L.R. 

 

In August 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive, the Allied Push that eventually would end the war, the 13th Bn was in action at Gomiecourt, with casualties of 200, and at the beginning of September moved up for the attack on Ecoust, incurring further casualties. It is not known when William was wounded, but he died of his wounds on 03rd September 1918.  

 

He now lrests at Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval, Pas de Calais. 

 

The cemetery was made in March 1918 by the 7th, 20th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations, but when the German advance began at the end of that month, their place was taken by field ambulances of the units fighting on the Arras front, notably the 31st Division and the Canadian Corps. In August and September, when the Germans had been pushed back, the 45th and 46th Casualty Clearing Stations were posted to the neighbourhood. Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery contains 688 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also 55 German war graves. The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.

 

William served in the Army for four years and earned his three medals.

 

William was 36 when he died, and his children were 12, 11, 9, and 8 years old.  

 

His widow Florence, living at 191 Wheatland Lane, Wallasey, Seacombe, Cheshire, received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £17, and a pension of £1-13-9d a week for herself and four children

 

In 1939 his widow, Primrose, now 56, is still living at 191 Wheatland Lane, with daughter Clara.

 

Florence never remarried, and died in Wallasey in 1959, aged 76.

 

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