William Charlton Foreman, Corporal 39817 WYR, 12124 Army Pay Corps, 53827 KOYLI
Photo courtesy of Steven Foreman
William Charlton Foreman was born in 1895 in Sunderland, the only child of Henry Robert Foreman and Lizzie Ann Prince, who had married the previous year. It is not clear what became of Henry, as on the 1901 Census Lizzie and William are at the home of John and Sarah Bent, Lizzie’s brother-in-law and sister. Lizzie is working as a seamstress. Then by 1911 they had moved to Leeds, to 74 Harehills Terrace, and Lizzie, still shown as married, is the head of the family. This time Sarah and her son Harold are with them. For Lizzie’s entry, below the word ‘married’, but crossed out and partially illegible, appears to be the word ‘deserted’. However, according to the family Henry is believed to have gone to the USA, where in 1923 he married again, to a Clara Johnson, in Montana. Lizzie and Sarah are both shown as having ‘household duties’, and William is now a clerk at a flock manufacturer’s. They also have a lodger, George Dixon, a brewery worker. Strangely the surname is spelled ‘Forman’, even though the form was filled out by William, but this is the only time I have found this spelling.
When war was declared in 1914 William was 19, old enough to have volunteered straight away, but for reasons that are not clear he didn’t. Perhaps the company for which he worked was engaged in war production, perhaps there were other reasons. He actually attested on 29th February 1916, possibly under the Derby Scheme, which had been introduced in the autumn of 1915, and was placed in the Army Reserve, for just over a year, again suggesting the Derby Scheme. He was 5ft 2½in tall, and two months short of 21. His address was now 22 Elford Place, Roundhay. He was not actually mobilised until 3rd March 1917, as Private 39817, The West Yorkshire Regiment. However, on the same day he was transferred to the Army Pay Corps on probation, perhaps because of his experience as a clerk. He received a new number, 12124, and there he stayed. One year to the day later he was promoted to corporal. Then two months later, on 18th May 1918, he was compulsorily transferred to the KOYLI, having been regraded as BI. Although no reason is given it seems likely it was on account of his health. Two months after this he was in the military hospital on Bere Island, County Cork, for three weeks, for unspecified reasons, and then in early December spent another week in York Military Hospital with influenza. By now the war was over, and proceedings for his discharge started. On 11th April 1919 he signed a disclaimer stating that he had received no disability as a result of his service. This, incidentally, is the first time I have found his full name, William Charlton Foreman, on any document. On all previous documents, army and census, ‘Charlton’ had been omitted. The next day he was sent to Ripon Dispersal Station, and a month after that, on 11th May, he was transferred to Class Z.
After the war William returned home, presumably to his old job. He was not awarded any medals as he had not served in a war zone. In 1921, on 18th July in St Aidan’s Church, Roundhay, he married Hilda Sellers, his father being named on the register but marked as ‘deceased’. He died of a ruptured Duodenal Ulcer on 1st Feb 1933 in Ariel Nursing Home, Doncaster, in which town he had run a shop.
Sources:
Ancestry – Army Service Records, Census Records, Marriage Records
Find My Past – Army Service Records
Free BMD – Birth, Marriage and Death Records
Researcher: Peter Taylor, with additional information from Steven Foreman, grandson of William
Please Note:
- All opinions and inferences are the researcher’s own.
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