L/Cpl 57636 Willie Crowther

 

When he was four years old, Willie was baptised at Christ the King Church, Battyeford on 16th August 1899, parents Thomas and Mary of Stocks Bank, father’s occupation tuner. It is likely, however, that Mary Ellis (his father’s married sister) and her husband Fred, who raised Willie, and who lived in Battyeford, had him baptised.

 

The 1901 Census finds Willie living with Mary and Fred Ellis and their only child George, in Blackburn’s Buildings, Mirfield. Frederick is a stone mason born in Mirfield, and George is 7. His youngest sister Mary is living with her grandmother Emma Crowther, in Liversedge. His father, stepmother and four siblings are also living in Liversedge, in Wellington Street. 

 

By 1910 his father has moved the family to Huddersfield, where his sisters Florrie, Lillie, and Beatrice were baptised together in 1910, their parents’ residence One Ash Terrace, and their father’s occupation power loom tuner.

 

The 1911 Census finds Willie still living with Mary and Frederick Ellis in Stocks Bank, Mirfield. Frederick is 48, a stone mason, Mary is 46, and George 17, is a stone mason’s apprentice.  Willie is 15, working as a grocer’s assistant. Youngest sister Mary is now back home. His father, stepmother, five siblings and two half siblings are living at 484, One Ash Terrace, Leeds Road North, Huddersfield.

 

Willie enlisted in Dewsbury joining the West Riding Divisional Cyclist Company, as Private 99. At some point he was transferred to the 18th Battalion of The Kings Liverpool Regiment as Lance Corporal 57636.

 

Willie died of wounds at No.17 Casualty Clearing Station on 13th June 1917, aged 21.

 

His death was reported on 23rd June 1917 in the Leeds Mercury:

“Dewsbury and district: Lce. Cpl. W. Crowther, Stock’s Bank, Mirfield (died of wounds).”

 

He now rests at Lijssenthoek Military Cememtery in Belgium where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"HE DIED THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE".

During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish casualty clearing stations. The cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hopital D'Evacuation and in June 1915, it began to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces.

From April to August 1918, the casualty clearing stations fell back before the German advance and field ambulances (including a French ambulance) took their places.

The cemetery contains 9,901 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 24 being unidentified. There are 883 war graves of other nationalities, mostly French and German, 11 of these are unidentified. There is 1 Non World War burial here.

The only concentration burials were 24 added to Plot XXXI in 1920 from isolated positions near Poperinghe and 17 added to Plot XXXII from St. Denijs Churchyard in 1981.

Eight of the headstones are Special Memorials to men known to be buried in this cemetery, these are located together alongside Plot 32 near the Stone of Remembrance.

The cemetery, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, is the second largest Commonwealth cemetery in Belgium.

His aunt Mary (the only mother he had ever known) suffered the loss of her husband at around the same time as Willie’s death, in the summer of 1917.  She remarried (possibly in 1921) and became Mrs. Mary Taylor. Mary, of Stocks Bank, Battyeford, Mirfield, received Willie’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £7-10s. 

 

Edith Wilson, born in 1899, a niece of Fred and Mary Ellis, lived in Stocks Bank, so would have known Willie growing up.  A story published in the Whaddon Quarterley (Whaddon, Bucks) in February 2018, author not identified, and also contributed to the I.W.M.’s Lives of the First World War site, sheds light on another aspect of Willie’s life:

“When my mother died, among her possessions found were two photographs: one of a World War 1 soldier in uniform, and another of her sister, Edith, then in her teens, carrying an inscription.  Written on the back of the photograph of Edith are the words: ‘From the pocket of L/Corp Willie Crowther, No. 57636, who died of wounds, 14th June 1917, at No. 17 Clearing Station France. And laid to rest at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinghe.’”

Willie and Edith were obviously friends, perhaps sweethearts. Edith never married.

 

Willie is commemorated in St. Andrew’s Church, Huddersfield.

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