Royal Field Artillery, 11th Brigade, Service no. 81173
Born 24th August 1892. Died 1970, aged 78.
Story
William was born in Kippax, and was the son of Abraham Smales and Susannah Foster. He was a Colliery labourer, 5 ft 8½ inches tall, and enlisted on 31st May 1915. After training, he was posted to France on 16th November 1915. Williams was injured during the War. On 29th August 1916, he suffered shrapnel wounds to the thigh, standing in a trench that had 6 inches of water. He recovered in Glasgow hospital, and sent a letter to his parents to say he was going on nicely. The family lived at Peasefold, Kippax.
After the War, William married Alice Downes on 22nd May 1920 in Kippax. The couple had a daughter Dorothy in 1921 and a son Ronald in 1922. William returned to work at Ledston Luck Colliery, as a Colliery Banksman, and lived at 29 Sandgate Terrace.
Despite being injured in the War, mining was frequently an equally dangerous occupation. William’s youngest brother James was killed at Allerton Bywater Pit on 24th May 1935, aged 25. He only worked there on Wednesdays, but was killed on Friday when he made one or two strikes into an ash pile with a pick at the colliery top, while waiting for a lift, and a wall of ash buried him. The inquest gave a verdict of ‘accident death in the course of employment.’
Below: Royal Field Artillery in Ypres, 1917:
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