No.23879, Private, William Henry VEARER
Aged 21
|
William Henry Vearer was born in Upend in 1895 (Newmarket Q1-1895 3B:526), son of William Edward and Edith Sarah VEARER, (née FOREMAN).The baptismal
transcription gives no dates.
1901 census...Aged 6, he was at Cottage, Upend Green with his father William E VEARER[46] horse keeper on farm, born Kirtling; his step mother Caroline [35] born Barrington; sister Louisa M [8] born Kirtling, step-brother John SHEPHERD [6] born Westminster, London, half-sisters Edith [4] and Daisy [2] both born in Kirtling. His father married Caroline SHEPHERD (née JUDE) in Q4-1897 (Newmarket 3B:1185). His mother Edith had died on 28th April 1897. As Caroline SHEPHERD, his stepmother had borne 5 children, Thomas [1886], Albert [1888] Gertrude [1890-1890] William [1891] and John [1894]. 1911 census...Aged 16, a farm labourer, he was at Cottage, Upend Green with his father and step mother, half sisters Edith and Daisy, half brothers Albert [9] and Frank [5] and step brothers William [20] farm labourer, born Portsmouth and John [16] farm labourer, born Westminster. |
|
He enlisted in Newmarket. His name is incorrect on his medal index card On 15th September 1916 the 9th Suffolk were engaged in the battle of Flers-Courcelette, their objective being the ridge between Morval and Les Boeufs. Over the top at 6:20, by 8:30 all the senior officers were killed or wounded. Against terrible machine gun fire from the Quadrilateral they were unable to progress and gradually dug in. They held on until relieved around midnight and moved into support trenches on 17th. General Douglas Haig maintained afterwards that the enemy had prior warning of the attack and the use of tanks. The battalion lost 100 killed on the 16th, 80 of them have no known grave and are named on the Thiepval memorial. Arthur BLOIS was killed in the same action see here . |
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details