Person

William Thomas (Billie) Wyllie was the son of William Lionel Wyllie RA, the famous marine artist, and Marian Amy Wyllie (nee Carew). He was one of nine children, two of whom died in infancy. His sister Eva suffered a spinal accident when she was two and a half; she was confined to bed and died in 1912 aged 26. His brother Robert, a private in the London Scottish Regiment was killed in France on 1 November 1914. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate, and in Portsmouth Cathedral along with William Thomas, whose bronze effigy in the cathedral was discovered by a Durham at War volunteer.

William’s father was a very successful artist; he sold his first painting, ‘Dover Castle’, while still in his teens for £700, a huge sum in the 1860s. He and Marian were engaged when she was 15 and he was 24, they married in Berne, Switzerland, three years later. They were both keen sailors and William Lionel had a boat, the ‘Ladybird’, kitted out as a studio which they sailed across the Channel and along the Kent coast. In 1886 they were offered a 20-year lease on Hoo Lodge overlooking the River Medway where William was commissioned to paint Maritime scenes. He also re-designed the Mosquito dinghy for Marian to sail (she said it was like sailing a butcher’s tray), cutting a hole in the deck and adding a canvas bucket for her to put her feet into. William Lionel also had boats made for his sons as soon as they could swim.

In 1906 when the lease was up on Hoo Lodge the family moved to Tower House, Portsmouth, where William Lionel continued painting pictures of warships for the navy. Only his son Harold followed his father and became an artist, although his youngest daughter Aileen was helping him to finish painting, ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’ when he died in 1931. The painting hangs in the Portsmouth Maritime Museum.

William Thomas must have inherited some of his father’s skill as a fine draughtsman; after completing his education at Eastbourne and Clifton, at the age of 18 he travelled to the Tyne to work at the Elswick shipyard as a Pupil Architect. He boarded with a Mrs Gibson in Elswick until he joined the Elswick Battery as a bombardier in 1901, and sailed to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. The Elswick Battery was formed to man the six 12 pounder three inch guns donated to the cause by Lady Meux. The guns were taken from a Japanese warship that was being fitted at the Elswick yard and adapted to be mounted on carriages. The volunteers who made up the Elswick Battery were all employed by the company and it was the first time a battery had been manned by troops who had also made the guns. Elswick Battery was disbanded in 1902 and William Thomas was then commissioned to the 4th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

From 1910 to 1914 Lieutenant William Thomas Wyllie sailed back and forth from Southampton to Forcados, Nigeria where he served with the West African Frontier Force. The ships’ registers show William Thomas listed as ‘British Scotch’, which echoes his brother Robert’s enlistment in the London Scottish.Though both were born in London they obviously felt strong ties to Scotland. On one of his trips home William Thomas married Mary Rickards on 3 October 1912 in Cricklade, Wiltshire, and the following year their son William Richard Carew Wyllie was born. In 1914 William Thomas returned from Forcados to fight in the Great War. He was promoted captain and made a brigade major, and served in France as Adjutant to Colonel Hubert Morant.

On 5 October 1915, just five months after the birth of their daughter, Margaret Mary, a telegram was sent to Mary at Tower House, Portsmouth via her solicitors in Whitehall to inform her that Captain WT Wyllie was in the Lady Evelyn Mason’s Hospital for Officers, Bruton Street, London, with a head wound. He survived and was sent back to the front where he was killed in action on 19 July 1916 in the first weeks of the Battle of the Somme. The telegram informing Mary of his death was mistakenly sent by her solicitors to a Lieutenant Colonel Wyllie who was staying at the Clifton Hotel in London. Fortunately he was able to inform the War Office that it did not appear to relate to any one in his near family. The telegram with the sad news was then delivered on 25 July 1916 to Marion who was pregnant at the time with their third child. Marian Ruth was born 1 September 1916, less than two months after her father’s death.

Mary waited until Marian Ruth’s birth certificate had arrived before she applied for her widow’s pension; she also claimed William’s effects which included a tax rebate of 13s 6d , his staff pay of £24 10s 5d, and field allowance £3 6s 11d.

In January 1920 Mary received a letter from Major Stopford; it was a notice of re-internment and reads:
‘This was for the purpose of concentration of isolated graves into British cemeteries. The grave of Captain WT Wyllie DLI was located at a point about one and a half miles north east of Mametz, and re-interred in Danzig Alley, British Cemetery, Mametz, east of Albert. The re-burial has been carefully and reverently carried out.’

Small comfort for a widow with three young children. However, Mary lived a long life; she died on 25 May 1984 in Lymington, Hampshire aged 97.

This information was derived from the officers service records, held at The National Archives, Kew, London: WO 339/6215 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1060157

Additional family information came from ‘The Wyllies on the Medway’ by John Basley, appearing in the Yachting Historians’ Winter 2011 newsletter http://www.yachtinghistorians.org.uk/newsletters.html

A photograph and details of the war memorial in Portsmouth can be found here: http://www.memorialsinportsmouth.co.uk/churches/cathedral/wtwyllie.htm

Birth date: 20-Jul-1882

Death date: 19-Jul-1917

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 70 Carlton Hill, St Johns Wood, London
Chatham (1885)
Hoo Lodge, Hoo, Frindsbury Peninsula, Medway, Kent
12 Grove Street, Elswick (boarder with Gibson family 1901 census)
85 Portsmouth Road, Woolston Itchen, Hants (1913 birth of first child)
Tower House, Tower Road, Portsmouth
Montauban, Purbrook Park, Hants (1915 Medal Card)

Education: Eastbourne, Clifton

Employment: Pupil Architect, Elswick Shipyard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Family: Parents: William Lionel Wyllie RA (1851-1931), Marian Amy Wyllie (nee Carew) (1861-1937)
Siblings: Harold Wyllie (1881-), Eva Wyllie (1884-1912), Richard Wyllie (1885-), Robert Theodore Morrison Wyllie (1888-1914), Eric Ian Carew Wyllie (1900-1973), Eric Janbarm Wyllie (1901-), Aileen Doreen Wyllie (1904-1987), Marian Amy Wyllie (1910-1937)
Wife: Mary Wyllie (nee Rickards) (b 1886) married 03-Oct-1912 Parish Church Marston Meysey, Cricklade, Wilts
Children: William Richard Carew Wyllie (b 22-Aug-1913), Margaret Mary Wyllie (b 14-May-1915), Marian Ruth Wyllie (b 01-Sep-1916)

Military service:

Pre-war service: Boer War, Bombardier, Elswick Battery (1901)
Lieutenant
4th Battalion DLI
West African Frontier Force, Nigeria (1910-1914)
Captain
10th Battalion DLI (1914)
Adjutant to Colonel Hubert Morant
May 1916 promoted Brigade Major

Medal(s): 1915 Star Medal
British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Interred at Dantzig Alley, British Cemetery, Mametz, east of Albert, France
Bronze effigy in Portsmouth Cathedral

Gender: Male

Contributed by MJE, Darlington