William Charles Head (1893-1915)

Post date: Aug 31, 2015 7:32:53 PM

William was born in Wateringbury in 1893 or '94 to Stephen and Mary Head, the middle of their three children. The family lived on Old Road in a 5 room cottage and Stephen was a fruit grower. William went to Wateringbury School and by the time of the 1911 census he was an insurance clerk.

We do not know when he enlisted (service number 3132) but as he was in a territorial regiment, 1/6th (City of London) Battalion of the new London Regiment, he was probably combining a job in the city with part time service, but he is not listed by the vicar as being in the Territorials in the first parish magazine after war broke out. The Territorial Force (TF) was a part-time form of soldiering whose stated role was home defence: men were not obliged to serve overseas, although they could agree to do so. When war broke out they were all mobilised into full time war service, and many then agreed to serve overseas. By the time of his death he was a corporal.

The battalion had just arrived in camp at Cowgate, Eastbourne, for annual training on Sunday 2 August 1914 when news reached them of the mobilisation of the Continental Powers. The battalion immediately entrained for London and the men returned to their homes, whence they were summoned the following day (3 August) to Farringdon Road in anticipation of the official mobilisation orders, which were issued on 4 August. Within a day or so the battalion was at full strength, having been joined by about 200 recruits from the KRRC Cadets. Like the other London TF units, a sufficiently high proportion volunteered for foreign service to make the battalion eligible to be sent overseas. The men who did not so volunteer, or were unfit, were constituted as a second, the 2/6th, battalion to which the flood of new recruits were directed.

In mid-August the battalion went into camp at Bisley, Surrey and a month later moved to Crowborough, Sussex, where it was trained in field operations. By 5 November, a number of individual London TF battalions had already been sent overseas and the 1/6th was transferred to the 4th London Brigade in 2nd London Division to bring it up to full strength in order to proceed to France as a formation. The battalion moved to Watford to join its new brigade, and field training continued until 16 March 1915, when it entrained for Southampton to embark for the Western Front. During the night of 17/18 March the 1/6th Londons sailed to Le Havre aboard the SS La Marguerite. During April the battalion began to take responsibility for holding its own section of the line, and suffered its first casualties. The 1/6th Bn was not involved in 47th Division's first attack, at the Battle of Festubert (15–25 May), but was heavily shelled for several days while holding the line adjacent to the attacks.

The first full-scale attack carried out was at the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915, the day William was killed in action. This was a carefully prepared attack following four days of bombardment and the release of a gas cloud. The 1/6th Bn's objective was the German trench system running from a mining spoil tip known as the Double Crassier to the Lens–Béthune Road. The battalion reached the German front line with few casualties, but the wire in front of the second line was a more serious obstacle, there was no natural cover, and the battalion suffered many casualties here. However, the objectives were taken by 08.00, after which the battalion consolidated its position and beat off counter-attacks.

William is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission Loos Memorial on panel 130. The Loos Memorial is to be found 4 miles northwest of Lens near the village of Loos-en-Gohelle on the D943 , the main Lens-Bethune road.