William "Bill" Lamb (1885-1917)
From Castle Eden, served with 1st/5th DLI, killed in action at Arras
Lance Sergeant William (Bill) Lamb died on 23 April 1917 during the Battle of Arras. He was 32 years old, married, and the father of five children, the youngest of whom was just three years old.
Bill Lamb was born in 1885 in Castle Eden Colliery, where his father, James, was a waggonway man at the colliery. His mother, Margaret, came from Hartlepool and in addition to Bill, there were two other children, Ann (older than Bill) and baby, James.
Like so many other young men of the time, leaving school at 12, Bill followed his dad into the colliery where he would rise to the job of rolley-way man underground. (The rolley-way man was responsible for maintaining the tracks used by the pit ponies pulling the coal tubs). In his free time, Bill played football for the local village team.
In June 1904, Bill married Frances Smith, a Sacriston girl, and on 22 July, their first child, Jane, was born. They were living in Shotton Colliery at the time, and over the next ten years, the young couple would have another four children. With the outbreak of the Great War, Bill left his wife and children behind and enlisted in Darlington in the 1st/5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry (DLI). He was eventually promoted to the rank of Lance Sergeant. A photo taken in 1915/16 shows him standing proudly in uniform; his wife, Frances, seated next to him looks less happy.
The day Bill left for war, his five children lined up to stand on a biscuit tin to kiss him goodbye. BIll couldn’t bend over to them due to the heavy back pack he had on. That was the last time his children would ever see him. His widowed wife, Frances, spent much of her time in later years with her youngest daughter, also called Frances, in Shotton, complaining rather than helping with her daughter’s large family. A reflection of the hard life she had as a widow, and not how she had been pre-war.
In April 1917, the 50th Northumbrian Division, including the 1/5 Battalion DLI attacked at Arras as part of a diversion for a major French attack on the Chemin des Dames. The battalion’s war diary records how the men had to march from their billets at Chestnut Camp, Coigneux, in preparation for their attack at Wancourt Ridge. They covered a distance of 32 kms (almost 20 miles) on a hot day, with several soldiers overcome by the heat and having to drop out en route.
On 23/24 April, as fighting continued Lance Sergeant Lamb was killed in action. His body was not recovered from the battlefield but he is named on the Arras Memorial, which commemorates almost 35,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers, who died at Arrras between spring 1916 and August 1918, and who have no known grave.
Bill Lamb’s memory is also honoured on the triptych inside the church of St Saviour’s, Shotton Colliery. It reads: “To the brave sons of Empire who fell on the battlefield of Europe. They have fought the good fight, dying in the cause of Humanity that Honour might live.”
With a war gratuity of just eight pounds and ten shillings and five children to raise on her own, Frances Lamb may have wondered if the honour was worth it.
Civil Parish: Monk Hesleden
Birth date: 1885
Death date: 24-Apr-1917
Armed force/civilian: Army
Residence: 8 Nicholas Street, Castle Eden Colliery (civil parish of Monk Hesledon, ecclesiastical parish of St John’s & St Peter’s 1891 census)
8 Front Street, Shotton Colliery (ecclesiastical parish of St Saviour’s 1911 census)
Employment: Miner (rolley-way man underground)
Family: Parents: James Lamb (b 1858), Margaret Lamb (b 1858)
Siblings: Ann Lamb (1881-1973), James Lamb (b 1890)
Wife: Frances Lamb (nee Smith) (1884-1957)
Children: Jane Lamb (1904-1991), Alexander Lamb (1907-1990), Margaret Ann Lamb (1910-1983),
Frances Ann Lamb (1912-1990), James Lamb (1914-1994
Military service:
3811 (later 200510) Lance Sergeant, 1st/5th Battalion DLI
Medal(s): British War Medal, Victory Medal
Memorial(s): Arras Memorial, France, Bay 8.
Gender: Male
Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station
