William Windmill was born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire in late spring 1895 and baptised at Christchurch, St. Albans, on Sunday, 13th October in the same year. He was the second child and only son of William Windmill and Sarah Pointer who had two children, Hannah and William. William’s cousin Edith Pointer also lived with them and it appears she was raised by her Uncle and Aunt. The Windmill family were recorded living on Portland Street, St. Albans in 1901 and William Snr. was working as a “Plasterer”. In 1911 when the younger William was fifteen years old, he is recorded working as a “Plasterer’s Apprentice”, presumably for his father, and the family now lived at 14 Mount Pleasant, just around the corner from their previous home.

William volunteered in October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war and he attested at Hertford and enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). He was posted for training with the 72nd Brigade, a “Howitser” unit, and sent to Larkhill in Wiltshire to the RFA Training School. There was a saying which soon developed during the Great War that “It took three months to train an infantryman, but twelve months to train a gunner” and it seems this was the case for William. Despite his early enlistment, like most other “Gunners” he spent over a year training to handle, move and fire the 4.5-inch Howitzers used by the RFA. It is not known exactly when he went to France, but it was not before the end of 1915. The first four-gun batteries of the 72nd Brigade had gone to France in July 1915 and it seems William followed six months later. 

He returned to St. Albans on home leave in the spring of 1916 to marry his sweetheart, Gertrude Elizabeth Huckle. Gertrude, originally form Great Hornmead, Hertfordshire, had been living and working in Leverstock Green for a number of years when she and William met. They were married in in St. Albans and after only a few days together, William returned to his Unit in France. In July he fought in the Battle of the Somme, which included the Battle of Pozières, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.

In 1917 his Brigade transferred to the 15th Scottish Division and he then fought in the Arras Offensive before moving to Belgium where he was in action at Pilckem Ridge and Langemark, phases of the Third Battle of Ypres in October and November. 1918 followed a similar pattern of action and in August and September William fought in the Second Battles of the Somme at Amiens, Albert, Bapaume and finally Mont St. Quentin. In late September, in action near Contalmaison, William finally ran out of luck. The circumstances of his death are not known in detail, but he was wounded at some point at the Front and despite being taken out of the line for treatment, he sadly succumbed to his wounds.

He died on Tuesday, 1st October 1918.

William had served for four years when he fell and had been at the front in action for almost three of these. The tragedy for him was how close the Allies where to victory and the Armistice which arrived only forty-two days after his death. Despite never having lived or worked in Hemel Hempstead, his widow Gertrude, who returned to live in Leverstock Green after their marriage, ensured he was properly commemorated on the town War Memorial.  Gertrude married for a second time in 1920 in Frimley, Surrey, to a widower and serving member of the RFA, James Garner, with whom she went on to have three children. She died in July 1970 at the age of eighty.

William is Remembered with Honour in Sunken Road Cemetery, Boisleux-St. Marc, Pas de Calais, France, where he is interred in Grave III. B. 17.

He was 23 years old when he died.

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