Other Information:William had previously served for 6 months with the 3rd East Lancashire Regiment. He enlisted on 7th October 1915, being 25 years old and living at 6 South Shore Street, Church, Lancashire at the time. He was posted to "V" Coy and then was transferred to serve with the 133rd Field Ambulance on 29th February 1916. On 3rd September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, the 39th Division became involved in the Fighting on the Ancre. The A.D.M.S. wrote “The position occupied by our troops was one from which it was most difficult to evacuate owing to the ground being exposed and the line of evacuation a lengthy one. The entrenchments were dominated on three sides, the Aid Posts small and inadequate and exposed to shell and machine-gun fire. Added to this I am informed by officers commanding bearers and others that enemy snipers were most active, picking off our bearers when collecting, and wounding again the patients being carried on stretchers. Super-added to which were weather conditions which turned the frontal surroundings, roads and pathways into a boggy state.” The R.A.M.C. casualties were 7 O.R’s killed and 5 officers and 76 O.R’s wounded. William was one of the 7 killed. He was the son of James and Eliza Crompton of Blackburn; and the husband of Elizabeth Ann Crompton of 6 South Shore Street, Church, Accrington, Lancs.
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