William George Fensom was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire on Thursday, 10th May 1877 and baptised a year later on Friday, 21st June 1878 at St Mary’s Church, along with his younger brother Charles. He was born to William Fensom and Eliza Ann Dyer who had eleven children together, four of whom died young. The surviving children were: William George, Charles Harry, Randall, Margaret Winifred, Muriel Doris, Eveline Alice and Reginald. The Fensom family lived on Queen Street in Hemel Hempstead, in a house known as “The Shanty”, when William was born and his father William Snr., worked as a ‘Turner’ or ‘Joiner’. By the 1901 census, William Snr. was running a ‘Carpentry and Building’ business from his home at 25 Queen Street and his wife Eliza Ann, ran a ‘Music Warehouse’ from the same address. William Snr. died in 1924 and had an estate worth the substantial sum of £2204, approximately £94,000 today, which he bequeathed to his son Charles.

William was a ‘carpenter’ and moved to London to work. In 1901 he was a boarder at the home of Robert Carey, another carpenter, who may have been his employer. The Carey home was at 27 Moreton Place in Pimlico, London and of the residents present on the day of the census, four were recorded as ‘carpenters’. In 1906 he was admitted to the Chelsea branch of the Amalgamated Union of Carpenters and Joiners. Whilst living in London he met Annie May Abbass Soffe and they became sweethearts and married in early 1903 in Chelsea. By the time of the next census in 1911, William and Annie had produced a family of seven children, one of whom died at birth. The children were: Mary May, Richard Harold, Phyllis, Frank William, Joan and the youngest Norah. The family lived at 30 Beaconsfield Road, Pimlico just a short walk from Seven Sisters underground station and William was a ‘carpenter’ with a building firm. Following William’s death, Annie did not remarry and spent the remainder of her life in Chiswick, where she had been born. She died in June 1953 at the age of seventy-four.

Shortly after the outbreak of war, William volunteered and enlisted with the Royal Naval Air Service as an ‘Air Mechanic’ on the 8th December 1914. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department. It existed formally from the 1st July 1914 to the 1st April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air force. The main "naval" roles of the RNAS were fleet reconnaissance, patrolling coasts for enemy ships and submarines, and attacking enemy coastal territory. William was posted to a shore training establishment, Pembroke III, where he stayed until the end of March 1915, when he was posted to President II. This was another shore establishment and William remained at this base for the next two years, until it transferred to Dunkirk in March 1917 and he went overseas.

During his training and active service he had quickly risen through the ranks and by the time he went to France, he had been promoted Petty Officer Mechanic. He spent eight months in France at the Dunkirk Air Base with No.10 Naval Squadron, with the exception of a brief nine day period of leave on the 1st November. William returned to France after his home leave and on the 4th December, he was admitted to 35 General Hospital in Calais for an unrecorded reason, but it was clearly serious enough to result in his transfer back to England. He sailed back to Dover in Kent on the 12th December and at some point, either during the crossing or shortly after his arrival, William took his own life. William’s death certificate records that his suicide was due to “temporary insanity brought on by active service”, and undobtedly the reason for his hospitalisation in Calais.

During World War 1, it is estimated that 80,000 British soldiers suffered from what was generally referred to as ‘Shell Shock’ In reality this was a general term which covered all manner of stress and trauma related conditions experienced by soldiers from all sides. Nevertheless, William had been a willing volunteer and during his service he was noted to be of; “Very Good” character and “Satisfactory” ability, aspects reflected in his rapid promotion to Petty Officer. 

He was the last soldier from Hemel Hempstead, commemorated on the War Memorial at Boxmoor, to die during 1917.

He was commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in St. Mary's Church, High Street, Hemel Hempstead where he had been baptised.

William is Remembered with Honour in the Ipswich Old Cemetery, Suffolk, England, where he is interred in Grave BA. IA. 19. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Florence, reads: “GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN”.

He was 40 years old when he died.

William was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.