William Henry Odell was born in Hemel Hempstead in Spring 1885 and baptised on Thursday, 21st May in the same year at St Mary’s Church in the town. He was the third child born to William Odell and Sarah Ann Spurr who had seven children together. The children were: Lily, Thomas, William, Annie Louisa Ethel, Mabel, Lizzie and Frederick. Sadly Mabel died in 1892 when she was only two years old. The Odell and Spurr families were long established in Hemel Hempstead, living around the High Street and Cherry Bounce for many years and often intermarrying. William’s second-cousins, George, Albert and John Spurr were also killed in the Great War and their biographies also appear in this book. In 1891 five families, totalling thirty-one individuals, of Odells and Spurrs where living on Cherry Bounce within a few doors of each other.

When William left school in 1898, he followed his sister Lily and brother Thomas into John Dickinson and Co. Limited at Apsley Mills where, like them, he worked as a ‘Box Maker’. By 1901 his sister Annie had joined them in the same job. Whilst at Dickinsons he met Louisa Tearle, a fellow employee who came from Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire and they soon became sweethearts. On Monday, 2nd January 1905 they married in St Mary’s Church, Hemel Hempstead and moved into 82 High Street only a few doors away from William’s family. His brother Frederick married Louisa’s sister Charlotte Tearle in 1916. At the end of 1905 they had their first child Horace William who was followed by Percy John in 1908. A daughter, Roselee Louisa May was next in early 1915 and finally, Aubrey Cecil came along in January 1916. Aubrey tragically died in December 1918 eight months after his father.

William had left Dickinsons before the outbreak of war, although it is not known where he went to work and in December 1915, he travelled to Watford to attest and join the Colours. He enlisted under the Group (Derby) Scheme and joined the Northamptonshire Regiment. He was posted for basic training and although it is not known when William went overseas, it was unlikely to have been before July 1916. It may have been as early at the 13th July 1916 when 300 drafts joined the severely weakened 6th Battalion Northants following the losses at the Somme. If he arrived at this time, he would have seen his first serious action at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge in September followed by the Battle of Ancre Heights in October and November.

William was certainly with the 6th Northants by 1917 and during that year he fought in The Third Battle of the Scarpe, a phase of the Arras offensive before moving to Belgium in July and taking up positions north of Ypres. He then fought in the Battles of Pilckem Ridge, Langemarck, First Passchendaele before the Second Battle of Passchendaele in October and November.

He survived these actions and came through the horrors of Passchendaele before the Battalion moved back to France for the next allied offensive at the Somme. In March he was at St Quentin where on the 21st March 1918, the 6th Northants took up position just south east of Montagne Bridge as the Battle of St Quentin began. On the third day the Germans launched a strong counter-attack forcing the Northants to withdraw and it was during this action that William was wounded although records show that his death was not confirmed until June.

William died of his wounds on Saturday, 21st March 1918.

He was 33 years old when he died.

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