William Edward Barber was born in Newington, London on Saturday, 29th June 1889 and baptised at St Mary Magdalene Church, Bermondsey three weeks later on Sunday, 21st July. He was the oldest child born to William Edward Barber and Florence Annie Harvey who had four children together who were: William Edward, Florence, Henry and Lillian. William’s father William Edward, a "Tin Plate" worker, died in 1897 when he was only thirty leaving his wife and four young children in dire straits. Florence had no option but to appeal to the parish and the children were admitted to the South Metropolitan Industrial School twelve miles away in Sutton, Surrey. This was a workhouse school and took in pauper children, giving them a basic education as well as "industrial" training designed to prepare them for a working life in Victorian factories.

Happily for William and his siblings, their mother remarried just over a year later and moved them all to Hemel Hempstead with her new husband, George Garner. On his mother’s remarriage, William gained five step siblings; William, George, Clara, Daisy and Lilly who with the exception of Lilly were all older. The three oldest children were working in Apsley Mills with John Dickinson & Co Limited in 1901. William went to Boxmoor JMI School in April 1899 and managed to achieve Standard IV before he became too ill to attend school. The school admissions log recorded that William left school in May 1901, when he was still only eleven-years-old, due to his illness although it does not record the nature of his problem.

William recovered enough to start work with a local Fishmonger and he was still in this trade when he met Emily Alice King from Chipperfield near Kings Langley. The two became sweethearts and on Boxing Day, Monday, 26th December 1910, they married at St Paul’s Church in Chipperfield. The young couple set up home at 39 London Road, Boxmoor and Alice’s youngest sister Florence, came to live with them whilst she was still at school. William and Alice soon started a family and just over a year after their marriage their first child, Frederick William Edward was born on Saturday, 30th December 1911. Joan followed eighteen months later on Sunday, 27th April 1913 and then Sydney Arthur arrived on Monday, 11th October 1915. Their last child Alexander was born on Sunday, 11th February 1917, just two weeks before his father joined the Colours. Sadly however, Alexander died only four months later.

William enlisted under the Military Services Act and attested at Watford on the 26th March 1917 when he joined the Suffolk Regiment. When he enlisted his medical examination recorded that William was 5 feet 9½ inches in height, significantly taller than the average working class soldier at the time who was 5 feet 2 inches. He was also heavier and better built than average at 10st 7lbs and with a 39 inch chest. He was posted to the 8th Battalion Suffolk Regiment and sent to Bury St Edmunds for basic training. William completed his training in less than three months and on the 17th May 1917, he was sent overseas where he disembarked at Le Havre on the following day.

By this stage of the war all newly posted soldiers, regardless of regiment, were sent first to a Base Depot where a decision was taken to send them to the units at the Front most in need of reinforcement or rebuilding. A month after arriving William was transferred to 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment and joined his new unit on the 11th June 1917 in the Field as part of a draft of sixty men. William saw his first serious action on the 31st July in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge where allied casualties exceeded 31,000 in four days of fighting. Despite some initial success, the weather prevented all objectives being met and the torrential rain turned the battlefield into a quagmire as it would again towards the end of the year at Passchendaele.

This was followed soon afterwards by the Battle of Langemarck when once again the weather hindered allied progress and casualties inflicted exceeded 36,000 in ten days of fighting. By the following year the 2nd Northants had moved to the Somme sector and following fighting in February, William was granted home leave on the 1st March 1918 and came back to Hemel Hempstead to see his wife and family. Two weeks later he was back with his Battalion and would never see his family again

He had returned from leave just in time to fight in the Somme Offensive of 1918 and in late March he was in action at St Quentin, Rosières and Villers-Bretonneux. On the 9th April 1918, William was appointed an unpaid Lance Corporal but his death shortly afterwards robbed him of the promotion to full rank. On the 23rd April the Battalion had just been relieved and moved to was thought to be a safer position in Bois de Blangy, but the following morning the Germans shelled the wood heavily and the Northants suffered a number of casualties. Later that day near Villers-Bretonneux, the advance was held up by intensive enemy machine gun fire and heavy casualties were inflicted. The Battalion War Diaries recorded more than 470 men killed, missing or wounded as a result.

It was during the second of these two actions that William was posted missing before being confirmed killed later in the day.

He died on Wednesday, 24th April 1918.

William is Remembered with Honour on the Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France, Panel 54 to 56

He was 29 years old when he died.

William was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.