William Thomas Pettitt was born on Monday, 27th June 1887 in Nash Mills, Hertfordshire. He was the seventh of eight children and the second son of William John Pettitt and Elizabeth Coles. The children were: Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Ada Louise, George, Edith, Emily, William Thomas and Beatrice Amy. His brother George also fought in the Great War and survived the conflict. William’s father, William senior, was a "Steam Engine Fitter" and had moved frequently with his job, resulting in his children being born in Northampton, Wellingborough, Apsley End and Croxley Green, before he settled his family in Hemel Hempstead. He worked with John Dickinson & Co. Limited, first at Croxley Mills before moving to Apsley Mills where four of his children would also work.

When William started school aged five in 1892 the family were living at Bulbourne. He went to Tring New Mill JMI School along with his sister Edith and Emily in April, but by December they all left as his father moved the family back to Hemel Hempstead and 15 Corner Hall. William now joined Apsley Boys School and his natural abilities were soon recognised by his teachers. In 1899 the school attendance log recorded the following: “Dec 4th – William Pettitt - a Sixth Standard boy – has assisted me as temporary monitor today, and will continue to do so (with the permission of H.M.I) to the end of the school year at least.” Permission was granted by the school inspector and William continued as a monitor throughout his final year at Apsley and was recorded as a member of staff for 1900-01. At the time, the brightest children were enlisted as monitors and in effect became classroom assistants to help other children with their lessons and the teacher with their duties.

William joined the army in 1906 when he was eighteen and by the time of the 1911 Census, was recorded as a Corporal in the 1st Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. He was stationed at the Bhurtpore Military Barracks, South Tidworth, near Andover in Hampshire. These barracks were part of the extensive Tidworth Camp which was the HQ for the Army’s Southern Command and are today part of Tidworth Garrison. On the outbreak of war, the 1st Battalion Loyal North Lancs was immediately mobilised and sent to France on the 12th August as part of the British Expeditionary Force. William, by now promoted Sergeant, disembarked with his comrades two days later at Le Havre.

In the first months of the conflict William saw action at Mons and the subsequent retreat, on the Marne and the Aisne in early September. It was shortly after this engagement that William was wounded when he was shot in the foot and he wrote home the following month to describe what had happened. The account was published in the Hemel Gazette under the headlines: “KILLED THEM LIKE FLIES” along with William’s request for “…THE GAZETTE AND A PACKET OF PLAYERS”.

William recounted how he had lain in the trench for three hours after being shot, before he crawled to a nearby hayrick where he was picked up by stretcher bearers and transported to a Base Hospital at Le Havre. From there he was eventually evacuated to England and taken to a Military Hospital in Cambridge for treatment. He was in hospital for a few weeks through October and it was here that he met his future wife, Emily Nelson. Emily, a qualified Midwife from Giggleswick in Yorkshire, had come south in 1913 to work in Ipswich. Following the outbreak of war and the steady increase in numbers of wounded soldiers returning home for hospital treatment, trained medical personnel from all backgrounds were enlisted to work in Military Hospitals. Emily was working in the same hospital at Cambridge when William was admitted and nursed him until he had recovered.

He was discharged and returned home to Hemel Hempstead to see his family and remained there for ten days before going back to join his Regiment at its depot in Preston in mid-November. Shortly afterwards the Gazette published an account of a "missing" letter which William’s brother George had written to him when he had still been at the Front. It appears that William was wounded and had been evacuated before the letter arrived and it was eventually returned to George marked “We cannot trace him. He is probably among the killed”. Thankfully William had already been home to prove he was alive, but the incident reveals the confusion that must have been the norm at the Front.

Promoted Sergeant Major, throughout 1915 he was engaged as a "Swedish Drill" instructor and trained thousands of recruits who had enlisted under the Group (Derby) Scheme. He was granted a period of home leave at the end of the year and he married Emily in Woodbridge near Ipswich, where she worked. William returned to France following his marriage and fought throughout the whole of the Somme campaign in 1916. The following year he saw action in the Battles of Arras, Vimy Ridge, Aisne and Messines before he fought in the horror of Passchendaele in November. Immediately afterwards he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant and received the happy news that Emily had given birth to their first child, a boy whom they named Nelson Noel. Sadly William never met his son.

In April 1918 William’s luck finally ran out. The 1st Battalion Loyal North Lancs was near Bethune in April holding positions at La Bassée, when over a period of several days the Germans attacked with force. Casualties were heavy with twelve Officers and 340 O.R. Killed, Missing or Wounded.

William was one of the Officers who died and he was killed in action on Friday, 19th April 1918.

His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette a month after he died. Emily never remarried and remained in Settle, Yorkshire where she and William had set up home before he had returned to the Front. She ended her working life as the "Nurse in Charge" of a Maternity Hospital and died in 1955 aged seventy.

William is Remembered with Honour in the Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture, Pas-de-Calais, France where he is interred in Grave III. D. 10. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Emily, reads: “PEACE PERFECT PEACE”

He was 30 years old when he died.

William was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.