William Mead 1896 – TBA
William was born in Uxbridge, circa 1896, the nephew of George Biggs and his wife Emily. It is not known why, but William was certainly living with them at Haynes Cottages, Little Haynes, from at least 1910 when the Dover Express of 26th August reported that he had been admitted to Dover Hospital, suffering from back injuries after he had been run over by a cart. He was not badly injured and was discharged the following day.
On the 1911 Census, William is described as a farm lad aged 15, living with his aunt and uncle.
He received notice to enlist and signed up at Eythorne on 7th September 1914, to the 8th Battalion, East Kent Regiment (The Buffs). He was given the service no. 2555 and gave his uncle as his next of kin. He was blue-eyed, fair-haired, stood 5’ 9” tall and was working as a labourer.
He wasn’t there for long though, as on 17th December 1914, he was discharged because of “a bad flat foot”. It would appear that he joined up again as subsequent records for the Royal Tank Corps, which he joined on 24th September 1919, service no. 313921, show that he served in the Great War from 17th September 1916 to 23rd September 1919 with the service no. 18533. There appear to be no physical records for him at this point, however William was initially a private and then a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery, Corps of Lancers, according to transcriptions on one of the genealogy websites.
He remained in the Royal Tank Corps until 23rd January 1923 when his services were no longer required. His trade on enlisting with them had been shoeing smith. On his discharge, he gave his address as c/o GPO, Hayes, Middlesex.
No further information is available to date.