East Lancashire Regiment, 1st Battalion, Service no. 14808160
Born: 5th June 1912. Killed in action: 14th April 1945, aged 32
Story
Private Wheatley’s parents were William Wheatley and Emma Brook, who lived on Butt Hill and later on Well Lane. William was a Colliery Byeworker, and married Lily Craven in 1936, and by 1939 the couple were living at 28 Beech Grove Terrace, Garforth.
William was killed at the end of the War as the Allies pushed into Germany. At the end of March 1945, William’s battalion crossed the Rhine and began the final advance across the North German Plain. The 1st East Lancashires took an active part in the battle for Bocholt, on the 28th March, then moved through the eastern border areas of Holland, mopping up enemy stragglers. German defences were based on water obstacles, and the East Lancashires then took part in fighting on the Ems-Weser Canal near Ibbenburen on the 6th April, and at the assault crossing of the River Aller on the 12th April. William was killed on the 14th April 1945, alongside other men from his regiment: Lance Corporal W. Hill, and Privates L.J. Miller, D.J. Adams and E.J. Mears. Shortly after, on May 8th 1945, ‘VE Day’, the German surrender ended the war in Europe. William is buried at the Commonwealth Graves Becklingen War Cemetery, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany in Plot 1. A. 7. He is also remembered in Kippax, alongside his youngest brother Horace Wheatley, who married his widow Lily in 1947. William and Lily had a daughter Cecily Iris Wheatley on 8th May 1943, and she lived at 3 Westfield Lane until passing away on 29th September 2017.
Kippax Roll of Honour 