Gunner William Edward Duckworth
L/18588 Royal Field Artillery 31st Heavy Trench Mortar Battery
Lived at 102 Springfield Road
Died of Wounds 2nd September 1916, aged 19
Buried in St. Venant Robecq Road Cemetery, France
Burnley Express 23rd September 1916

Burnleys Great War Centenary

Sponsored by: Anne F.M. McIntyre

Gunner William Edward Duckworth L/18588 Royal Field Artillery 31st Heavy Trench Mortar Battery served in France and died of wounds on 2nd September 1916 aged 19.
William Edward Duckworth was born in Burnley in 1896, the son of William and Ada Maria (née Rawson) Duckworth. His father was a butcher and his mother, a grocer. The Duckworth family were from Accrington but during the 1880s, William’s father, William, moved to Burnley, lodging first in Padiham with a butcher’s family before meeting and marrying Ada Rawson in 1895. The Rawson family were Burnley weavers. William and Ada set up home in Waterloo Road. They had 8 children – the 7th, James, born and died while William Edward was away in the army and the 8th was born after William’s death (this youngest son, Charles, also saw active service in the Second World War).
William Edward was effectively the eldest child (an older brother, Frank, died in infancy) and in the 1911 census he was working with his mother in the grocery shop and living at 84 Springfield Rd, Burnley.
William enlisted as a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery and was part of the 31st Division which was largely comprised of "Pals Battalions" from Lancashire and Yorkshire - hence the use of the red and white roses in the Divisional symbol.
The units trained at South Camp at Ripon in April and May 1915 but they suffered from severe shortages of arms, ammunition and much equipment. It was not until September that the Division moved for final training and firing practice at Fovant on Salisbury Plain.
In early December 1915, the artillery (including William) of the 31st division was sent to France to join the 32nd Division while the rest of the 31st Division sailed to Egypt (and subsequently to France in March 1916).

In France, the Division were sent to the front line for the Somme offensive and took part in the first phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916 – the Battle of Albert.

On 24th June, a seven-day artillery bombardment of the German lines commenced, which given his role, William must have been involved in. This bombardment was to allow wire-cutting operations to take place but unfortunately, in the Serre sector, bad weather had impaired the artillery observation, so very little of the wire was cut.
The 31st Division were at the most northern point of the 15 mile Somme offensive, close to the town of Serre which the Germans had turned into a fortified village - the objective was to capture Serre crossing four lines of German trenches. The name of Serre has now come to be linked closely with several of the 'Pals' battalions, which suffered very heavy losses in the attacks made here.
Ahead of the infantry attack at 07:30 on 1st July, the artillery bombarded the German front lines with mortars with increased intensity. William will have played his part in this, too.
It looks likely that William Duckworth was wounded during one of these bombardments - he was moved to a casualty clearing station suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and burns to his face. He died two months later at 1.45pm on 2nd September 1916.

From January 1915 to October 1917, Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at St. Venant and William was buried in St Venant Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais. He is buried in Plot II (grave J1), which was used from August 1915 to December 1916.

William Duckworth was awarded posthumously, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

His 5 surviving siblings all married – Elizabeth Ellen to Harry Collison in 1923, Lewis to Marie Shaw in 1918 (they had 6 children), Elsie to Albert Morris in 1924 (3 children), George to Ellen Crane in 1937 (widowed in 1963, Ellen married Alan Jackson in 1969), and Charles to Annie McGuire in 1940 (2 children).

William’s uncle, James Duckworth of Accrington, was also killed in WW1. Like William, he was a gunner in the RFA (5th Battery East Lancs Bgde) and was killed in action at Gallipoli on 16th June 1915.

(above courtesy of Anne McIntyre)