300497 L/Sgt. William Worthington Wilson British Army 18th Btn. D Coy, Machine Gun Section. Durham Light Infantry from:10 Azalea Avenue, Sunderland William Wilson was born on 24th December 1892 in South Bishopwearmouth, son of Hannah Turner Hardy and Samuel Worthington Wilson. He had three younger siblings Nellie, Robert Hardy and Samuel Worthington. Employed as an Engineer, he served as a Territorial with the 7th Durham Light Infantry and was at camp in Wales when war broke out at the beginning of August. The 7th DLI were deployed to guard the East Coast and railway lines. William resigned and re-enlisted in November with the 18th DLI, where his experience was valued and he was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 23rd of January 1915 and to Corporal on the 12th May 1915, then to Lance Sergeant on the 16th November 1915. He served with D Company, Machine Gun Section.
On 21st of March 1916 he wrote to his sister from Citerne near Abbeville, France:
"My dear Nellie,
As you said in your most welcome letter (received in Egypt) it is just as well I know you. The cap fits us both however, for I'm sure that if you did not know me, you would long since have been thinking some very hard things about your soldier brother. But as that is not the case, if when we both regard letter writing as more or less of a bore, then there is not much harm done by any lack of correspondence on our parts.
Thoughts however are different, for since I commenced my one & only sea voyage till now, there seems to have been a great change come over us and I've realised what you have been & are now to us a real sister. Now there is Dorothy, many are the times I've had your photo out, and felt the better for it. The tales I hear of her canny way & loveable manner make me feel quite eager for the chance of seeing for myself, and feeling her lips on mine in a cousin’s kiss. You will not realise the kind of possession we feel in having a niece all our own, but it is there Nellie, & we glory in it, perhaps because we may be thinking 'things' ourselves, but 'nuff said about that. I guess there will be no need for me to tell you when we got here, where we are, how we are, what we are going to do and when, etc, etc, etc, for you will no doubt get all that from Mother, so there'll be no need for me to waste any space on that subject. One little bit of news however that I have not put in Mother's letter is to the effect that a certain number of NCOs leave here tomorrow for a six days spell in the trenches – to learn the ropes y' know, unfortunately I am not included in this number but hope that I shall be in the next party which will go up about the 29th of this month. You can use your own judgement about telling Mother of this. It will make little difference however, whether I go or not, simply because there is very little doing in that sector of the line we are to take over. Also our opponents are said to be Saxons, & they do not believe in pushing things on very much – unlike the Prussians at Verdun. However we shall see about that later. Shortly before leaving Egypt I received a letter from Dora, enclosing an excellent photograph & I have not even acknowledged it yet, so you might 'apologise' for me, will you Nellie dear, & say I'm going to write just as soon as ever I can. Probably I may get a letter of to her before you do, tho' I'm not sure. Methinks a secretary will shortly have to be engaged by this chicken. I am not giving you any address for you can get that any time from Mother, so now that it is nearly dark and no candle I'd better close with love to Jim, and with lots of love to you, Billie" - https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/4823716
William was killed in action on the 1st of July 1916. The Sunderland Daily Echo of Tuesday July 18, 1916 reported his death: "Intimation has been received by Capt. and Mrs S. W. Wilson, 10, Azalea Ave., Sunderland, that their son, L/Sgt. Wm. W. Wilson, Machine Gun Section, D.L.I., was killed in action on July 1st. He enlisted in the local Pals Battn in November, 1914, with his three chums.
His officer writes: It happened on the first day of the push, July 1st, at the very beginning. Shrapnel and high explosives were bursting all over, and m/g fire swept the whole line. Poor Wilson got on to the parapet, leading his section into the attack. He had only gone two or three yards when he fell with a machine-gun bullet through his chest. I understand he was carried back immediately to our trench, but he was dead. He was a steady, quiet, and manly fellow; everybody liked him, and many in the battn have expressed their sorrow to me. That he did his duty, and that he nobly led his section in front of perhaps the most murderous fire that there has been in all the war may be some little consolation to his mother."
William has no known grave and is remembered on the Theipval Memorial to the Missing.
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