The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website records that Private William Henry Skelton was the: “husband of Jane Ann Skelton, of 58, Queen St., Pilsley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.”
William Henry Skelton was born in Dudley, Worcestershire in 1892. His parents were William Henry Skelton (born Dudley 1871) and Sarah nee Woodall (born Dudley 1870). William Henry senior and Sarah nee Woodall wed in the Dudley Registration District in 1892.
The 1911 census found the 14-year-old William Henry Skelton junior with his parents at Willow Terrace, Church Street, Pilsley, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. At the time, William Henry senior was a Coal Miner Hewer, and William Henry junior a Colliery Pony Driver Underground. The household return shows that, by census night 1911, Sarah Skelton nee Woodall had borne 9 children of whom 3 had died.
William Henry Skelton’s SDGW entry shows that when he enlisted at Derby, he confirmed his birthplace as Dudley, and his current residence as Pilsley. It also shows that he initially served as 116681 Private William Henry Skelton of the Sherwood Foresters (the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). Neither SDGW nor his medal card confirm when William Henry signed up or when he first entered a theatre of war.
In later 1917, at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Pilsley, William Henry Skelton married Jane Ann nee Bacon. Their son, another William Henry Skelton, was born in early 1918.
The CWGC confirms that William Henry Skelton died, aged 22, on 18 September 1918, and that his remains are interred in Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery, Epehy: “Epehy [being] a village between Cambrai and Peronne about 18 kilometres north-east of Peronne, in the Somme Region of France”. In its notes about Epehy, the CWGC states that having been lost to the enemy: “The village of Epehy…….was retaken (in the Battle of Epehy) on 18 September 1918, by the 7th Norfolks, 9th Essex and 1st/1st Cambridgeshires of the 12th (Eastern) Division”…. 18 September 1918 being the date on which 49677 Private William Henry Skelton of the 9th Battalion Essex Regiment met his fate.
William Henry Skelton, who left a widow and a baby son, is also commemorated on a Pilsley war memorial.
[NB The publication ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919’ (SDGW), and his medal card, both confirm the service number of Private William Henry Skelton of the 9th Battalion Essex Regiment to have been 49677, rather than 49577.]
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