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Lance Corporal William Arthur Eames
Great War 1914-1918: Coldstream Guards
Died: 15 Sep 1916 Age: 26
Tower: Crayford Society: Kent
CWGC Grave/Memorial: Serre Road Cemetery No. 2 -- XIX. F. 9.
(click to enlarge images)
CWGC data
- Casualty Number: 608577
- Casualty Details: (Link by permission of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission)
Notes
Initials written in Memorial Book as "H".
Biography
Born October 1889. Son of Emma Eames. Husband of Mary Elizabeth Giles (nee Cole and formerly Eames) whom he married 16/11/1915 at St Botolph's Shenleybury, Hertfordshire, of 26 Preston Gardens, Willesden, London. By his early twenties William was working as a gardener at Shenley Grange, the home of John Charrington, Chairman of Charrington, Gardner, Locket & Co., Coal and Coke Merchants, and he lodged with the Cole family who at that time lived in London Road, Shenley, Hertfordshire. William Cole Snr, also a gardener, had lived in Shenley since 1899 and was the parish clerk and sexton. Sometime in the years immediately prior to 1914 William left Shenley and went to work in the gardens of Oakwood House in Crayford, Kent. From the early 1880s Oakwood House was owned by Stephen J. White, a Lloyds Underwriter and Insurance Broker, and it was during this period that Oakwood became known for its extensive and well stocked gardens. On 03/09/1914 William joined up at Erith and enlisted in the 4th Home Counties (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Ten days later he went to Chatham with Albert Gilson, whose name is also on the Shenley war memorial, and together they enlisted in the Coldstream Guards. He is remembered on War Memorials at Shenley, Crayford and in the Ringing Room at Crayford.