Robert William Gamble, known as William, was born on Wednesday, 2nd April 1890 in Hemel Hempstead, the oldest child of Frederick Gamble and Emma Collier. He had four siblings who were: Annie, Frederick, Harry and Hilda. Annie died when she was only a year old in 1892 and William’s youngest brother Harry also fought in the Great War and he was killed in action at Guillemont in France, only six months later on the 15th September 1916. His biography is also in this book.

The Gamble family lived at 57 Horsecroft Road in Boxmoor when William was born, and his father Frederick was a labourer on the railways. Frederick was from Welham in Leicestershire and had come south to Boxmoor with his job in about 1886. He subsequently met a local girl, Emma Collier, and they were married in 1889 in Boxmoor.

William started his education at Boxmoor JMI school on the 18th February 1897 and successfully completed the expected six standards before leaving on the 9th April 1903 to start working. He was thirteen years old and his first job was in a local dairy working for Henry Morgan on Horsecroft Road. By 1911 William had moved jobs and was working, along with his brother Fred, as a Printer in Dickinson & Co. Ltd. at Apsley Mills. His youngest brother Harry was a Wood Sawyer at G.B. Kent & Sons the brush makers in Apsley.

Shortly after the outbreak of war William enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment attesting at Hemel Hempstead in September 1914. He was sent to the 4th Battalion for basic training at Felixstowe, Suffolk and the following year he was sent to France on the 23rd March 1915. He was posted to 1st Battalion Bedford’s joining his unit near Ypres on the 28th March and within four weeks he saw action at the appalling Battle of Hill 60. After the initial capture and subsequent defence, the 1st Battalion lost so many men that they were effectively rebuilt twice during the fighting. Not long after William first saw action, his mother Emma died aged 48 and was buried at Heath Lane Cemetery in Hemel Hempstead on the 11th May 1915.  

Having survived the actions at Hill 60, William spent the next eleven months in an around the trenches and eventually in March 1916, he found himself with his comrades near Arras in France. They were subject to constant enemy sniping and suffered frequent casualties until, overnight of the 30th and 31st March the battalion War Diary recorded the following:  "30 Mar 1916 Search party for body of Lt Whittemore proved futile. Enemy active with Trench Mortars. Retaliation by our Trench Mortars bad, owing to insufficient supply of ammunition…31 Mar 1916 …Casualties during tour Killed 1 Officer, 3 O.R. Wounded 1 Officer* 4 O.R. * 2nd Lt.P. Vyvvan 3rd R.W.S.(Queens) Regt attached, on night of 30/31 March."

William was one of the "3 O.R." killed and he died on Thursday, 30th March 1916.

William is Remembered with Honour in Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, Pas-de-Calais, France, where he is interred in Grave I. A. 5.  

He was 26 years old when he died. 

William was eligible for the 1915-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.