William Simons was born in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire on 16th April 1884 and baptised in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in the village in 1885. He was the second child and first son born to Thomas Simons and Phoebe Ward, who had a family of eight children together. The children were, Mary, Sarah, William, Ada, Rosa, Ruth, Agnes Lily, Sydney John, Harold and Ellen May. Mary died in 1883 aged just three. William’s father Thomas was an Agricultural Labourer and it was this job which brought the family from Eaton Bray to Hemel Hempstead in 1897. Thomas came to work on a farm at Hoblett’s Orchard on High Street Green to the north of the town. At the time of the 1901 Census, the family were split between two houses on the farm with Thomas and Phoebe in one with Sarah, Ada and Harold, whilst William lived next door with the rest of the children and was recorded as “Head” of the household. He was working as a “Farmer’s Help”. By 1911, the family had moved only a short distance and was recorded living at High Street Green and both William and his father are working as “Farm Labourers” possibly at the same farm although there were a number of others nearby.

William, who was twenty-six years old by this time, may already have been thinking about emigration as in August 1912 he set sail for Quebec in Canada. His stated intention was to settle in the province of Ontario and to pursue a career in farming. He arrived on the 6th September and proceeded to Toronto where he lived and worked as a “Labourer” in the Hamilton area, until war broke out two years later. On the 25th September 1915 when he was aged thirty-one, he travelled to his local recruiting centre at Hamilton Armories to volunteer. He attested and enlisted with the recently formed 75th Battalion (Mississauga) Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force (CEF) and was posted to the Base Camp for basic training. On enlistment he was described as “5 feet 5 inches” with a dark complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair and “fit for military service”.

The 75th Battalion was mobilised in Toronto and embarked for Great Britain on the 29th March 1916. It disembarked in France four months later on the 12th August, where it fought as part of the 11th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division. William saw action within the month when the 75th fought with distinction in the Battles of Regina and Desire Trenches before moving to Vimy Ridge and digging in for winter. In April He took part in the great assault at Hill 145 which proved so costly for the Canadians and it was during this engagement on the 9th that William was wounded. It is not known how serious this was or for how long he was out of the line, but he did recover and returned to his Battalion.

William survived to see the end of the Great War and had returned to England with his Battalion to await shipping out to Canada. However, in mid-January 1919, he contracted “Spanish Flu” the deadly strain of influenza ravaging the globe and he was admitted to No.12 Canadian General Hospital at Bramshott in Hampshire on the 21st of the month for treatment. Sadly however, he succumbed to his illness a few days after admission.

He died on Saturday, 25th January 1919.

Rather than being returned to Canada, his body was brought back to his parents in Hemel Hempstead where they buried him two days later on the 27th January.

William is Remembered with Honour in the Hemel Hempstead (Heath Lane) Cemetery, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, where he is interred in Grave SA. 25. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Phoebe, reads: “WE MISS YOU STILL WE CANNOT FORGET SLEEP ON, SLEEP ON”.

He was 35 years old when he died.

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