SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Private WILLIAM GEORGE PAWSEY.

66706, 1st/6th Bn., Northumberland Fusiliers.

who died, age 18, on the 11th April 1918.

Son of Ann E Pawsey, of 2, West Terrace, Skelton-in-Cleveland, Yorks and the late Thomas Pawsey.


Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Hainault, Belgium

At the census of 1901 William, aged 1, was living at 34 High St, Skelton.
His father, Thomas, is listed as a House Painter and had been born in Skelton.
His mother, Ann E C, was also Skelton born.
He had a brother Francis age 7 and a sister, Emma age 9.

The 1/6th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers were formed in August 1914 in St George's Drill Hall, Newcastle.
Part of Northumberland Brigade, Northumbrian Division, in May 1915 they were attached to 149th Brigade, 50th Division.
William Pawsey was killed in the area of Ypres at a time when the major offensive was the German push in the Somme area.
It seems some major incident took place though, as two other Skelton men from different units were killed at the same date and appear on the same memorial - James Allison and William Bennison.
The British major attack in Flanders, the Third Ypres, did not begin until June of this year.
The Ploegsteert Memorial stands in Berks Cemetery Extension, which is located 12.5 kilometres south of Ieper town centre.
The sounding of the Last Post takes place at the Ploegsteert Memorial on the first Friday of every month at 7 p.m.
The memorial commemorates more than 11,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in this sector during the First World War and have no known grave.
The memorial serves the area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warneton to the north, to Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes to the south, including the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert Wood.
The original intention had been to erect the memorial in Lille.
Those commemorated by the memorial did not die in major offensives, such as those which took place around Ypres to the north, or Loos to the south.
Most were killed in the course of the day-to-day trench warfare which characterised this part of the line, or in small scale set engagements, usually carried out in support of the major attacks taking place elsewhere.