William Batchelor was born on 3rd September 1894 and baptised exactly one month later on 3rd October at St. Mary’s Church on the High Street in Hemel Hempstead. He was the youngest of eleven children born to Richard Batchelor and Caroline Austin. William’s siblings were Walter, Leonard, Alfred, Annie, Frederick Daniel, Harold, Charley, Herbert and Arthur. Frederick died in 1896 aged twelve, Walter died in 1903 aged twenty-nine and one other unnamed child in infancy. One of his older brothers, Harold was killed in the War in April 1915 and his biography also appears on this site. His brother Charley also saw active service and survived the conflict. The family lived at 6 Boxted Cottages, Boxted just to the west of Hemel Hempstead, when William was born. Boxted was a farming area much as it is today, and his father and older brothers were working on the land. His father Richard died in 1898, leaving Caroline to raise the family alone and in 1901 the census return records that she was a “Charwoman occasionally”. However, four of her sons were working on nearby farms as Agricultural Labourers.

William finished his schooling in 1907 and followed his brothers onto the land as a “Farm Labourer” which was still his occupation on the outbreak of War in August 1914. Following the declaration, William immediately went to volunteer and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment at the end of August, after which he was sent for basic training. This was undertaken with the 4th Battalion at Felixstowe and seven months later, training completed, William was sent overseas.

On the 9th April 1915 he sailed for France having been posted to the 2nd Battalion Bedfords, and he arrived as part of a draft of seventy-seven men with his new unit on the 27th April. The following day he was on the move again as the Battalion set off, first to Strazeele, then Pont Duhem, arriving there on the 8th May. That night at midnight the Battalion went into dugouts near Aubers in reserve for the 8th Divisions attack on German trenches. Their position came under heavy shell fire and three men were wounded, one of which was William, hit in the shoulder by shrapnel. He was taken out of the line and sent for treatment to his wounds, and as a result his life was probably spared. Just a week later the 2nd Battalion fought in the Battle of Festubert and suffered over 400 casualties, half the units fighting strength.

It is not clear when William returned to the frontlines, and there are two possible scenarios, dependent on the seriousness of his wounds. If they were not serious, he may have gone back to the 2nd Battalion as soon as the 19th June 1915, when the Battalion War Diaries recorded the arrival of “A draft of 56 other ranks…” many of whom were wounded men returning to their unit. If his wounds were more serious he may have been evacuated back to England for treatment and rehabilitation and this may indeed be the reason he was subsequently posted to the 4th Battalion Bedfords with whom he served until his death. 

This second scenario is the more likely and meant that William was posted to the 4th Battalion at Felixstowe on his recovery. The 4th Battalion was home based on coastal defence duties, but it also acted as a source of drafts for front line battalions, and it may have been that William was to be posted back to the 2nd Battalion. However, following the devastating losses at the Somme in 1916, the 4th Battalion was mobilised for overseas service and on the 26th July 1916, it landed in France.

The Battalion and William’s first serious action came towards the end of the year at the Battle of Ancre in November where the cost of progress made was the loss of 194 men, killed, wounded or missing. William saw out the year with his comrades away from the front lines, marching and training. February 1917 brought more action along with further casualties for the 4th Battalion when it lost over 200 men at Miraumont but William, by now a Lance Corporal, survived the engagement. He fought in the Second Battle of the Scarpe in late April and following a move with the Battalion into Belgium, he fought in the devastating Second Battle of Passchendaele at the end of October, where the 4th Bedfords lost a further 264 men. Over the next five months the Battalion was reinforced and in March of the following year, William was in action once more when he fought in the First Battles of the Somme 1918, first at St. Quentin and the Bapaume. 

It was here during these actions that William performed an act of bravery which resulted in the award of the Military Medal. Although the details are not known, the Battalion War Diaries recorded that on the 14th April, William received the award along with four of his comrades. Not long after this he was promoted Corporal and by August had risen to Serjeant.

The Second Battles of the Somme, specifically the Battle of Albert, began on the 21st August and for six days William fought alongside his comrades in what was the action which turned the tide of the war in favour of the Allies and led directly to victory and the Armistice only ten weeks later. Tragically however, William did not to survive to see the end of the conflict as he fell on the last day of action at Albert. The Battalion War Diaries recorded the details and described the hard fighting including the heavy casualties inflicted by both enemy guns and Allied shells falling short during a creeping barrage. Ultimately the attack by the 4th Battalion failed and this was attributed to lack of support at critical points in the assault.

Initially William was posted “Missing” but was finally confirmed “Killed in Action” on Tuesday, 27th August 1918. Until he fell, William had served his country in the Great War for almost four years to the day and died just seventy-four days before the war ended.  

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

William is Remembered with Honour in Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Pas de Calais, France, where he is interred in Grave IV. G. 29.

He was 23 years old when he died.

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