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Sea. Henry Thomas Williams
Royal Navy 4th (Collingwood) Btn. Royal Naval Division
from:47 Breamish Battlefield, Newcastle Upon Tyne
My grandfather Henry Williams, who originated from Ross on Wye, endured a sad early life. His mother died in 1905 and both he and his younger brother were evicted, along with their father, to a workhouse. In 1906, when he was about 11 or 12 years old, the brothers were sponsored by local benefactors and sent from the workhouse to a training ship (the Wellesley) moored in the Tyne. There, he was trained in seamanship and as a machine operator, but also as a bugler. His brother perished in 1913. The training ship sank after catching fire, and upon the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Royal Naval Division.
He was very fortunate when the majority of his battalion, 4th Battalion Collingwood, were sent to be slaughtered in Gallipoli and he was instead sent to Crystal Palace Depot HMS Victory VI. The fact that he was a bugler I know is recorded on his service record, but I have little or no other information about him except that he stayed local after the war, having married my grandmother in 1919, a local lady from Penge. He passed away in 1925 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Elmers End Cemetery.
