William Younger (1899-1918)
From Newcastle upon Tyne. Died of wounds on the day before the Armistice.
William Younger was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1899, the son of a painter and decorator. He enlisted in September 1916 and joined the 5th Training Reserve Battalion at Rugeley in Staffordshire.
in November 1917, Private Younger joined the 13th (Service) Battalion DLI and served with this battalion in Italy. In September 1918, the 13th Battalion returned to France, where the Allies were beginning to push back the German Army along the whole front.
On 6 October 1918, after a few days acclimatising to conditions on the Western Front, 13 DLI joined an attack near Beaurevoir north of St Quentin in northern France. Though the German Army was being pushed back, it was still capable of inflicting heavy casualties on the advancing Allied forces and, in this attack, 13 DLI lost over 50 men killed, wounded or missing. One of the missing soldiers was Private William Younger.
William’s fate was initially not known but in early 1919, his family learnt that he had been seriously wounded and taken prisoner on 6 October. He had then been sent to a German military hospital in a music college at La Louviere, east of Mons.
In the confusion of early November 1918, as German forces were pulling out of the towns and villages they had held in Belgium since 1914, William Younger was moved by local Belgians to a communal hospital in La Louviere. There he died of his wounds on 10 November 1918 – the day before the Armistice – and was buried in the local cemetery.
For further information:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/894994/younger,-william/
Birth date: 1899
Death date: 10-Nov-1918
Armed force/civilian: Army
Residence: 1911 Census: 2 Walter Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne.
1916: 217 Stanton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Religion: Church of England.
Family: Parents: Waters & May Younger.
Military service:
Enlisted 16.9.1916. Joined the 5th Training Reserve as TR5/14233.
Posted to 13th Battalion DLI as 87497 Private on 20 November 1917. Served in Italy & France.
Wounded & taken prisoner 6 October 1918 near Beaurevoir.
Medal(s): British War Medal, Victory Medal.
Memorial(s): Buried: La Louviere Town Cemetery, Belgium.
Gender: Male
Contributed by Durham County Record Office.
