PRIVATE WILLIAM (BILLY) HAYWOOD 1/7th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED (INFLUENZA) 23rd FEBRUARY 1919 AGED 19.


PRIVATE WILLIAM (BILLY) HAYWOOD 1/7th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED (INFLUENZA) 23rd FEBRUARY 1919 AGED 19.




In mid February 1919 young William Haywood arrived home on leave from his unit which was stationed in Belgium. Clearly very ill with what was soon diagnosed as influenza his condition deteriorated, pneumonia set in and within a week he was dead.

William was born in Ilkley in 1899 the eldest son of Joseph and Clara Haywood who lived at Springs Cottage on Springs Lane. Joseph was a carter and a staunch Methodist who worshipped with his family at Christchurch on The Grove. Every Sunday afternoon William would help the younger members of the congregation with their reading and help out in the little Sunday School. He was also member of the local Volunteers Company based at the Drill Hall on Leeds Road. The Volunteers were a sort of WW1 equivalent of the Home Guard and were made up of young boys under military age waiting call up along with older men too old to fight. He played both the bugle and drums in the Volunteers band and because of his height, only 5’ 1”, was nicknamed the ‘Little Corporal’. After leaving school he had taken a job as an errand boy for Mr J J Walker who ran a grocers shop in town.

Called up in 1917 just after his 18th birthday, William, was assigned to the 1/7th Durham Light Infantry as a drummer and bugler. Sent to the Western Front in April 1918, barely trained and expected help staunch the violent attacks of the German Spring Offensive. He served with the battalion right through the heavy fighting of the summer and autumn months and remained with them after the Armistice.

Three days after his death William’s body was taken into Christchurch, his coffin covered by a Union Jack with his helmet and belt placed on top. After the funeral his remains were taken in an open carriage through Ilkley down to the towns cemetery where he was laid to rest.

William Heywood is not named on the town’s war memorial but is remembered at Christchurch.



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