Pte 50266 William Henry Spiller

• Age: 39
• From: St Ives Cornwall
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 19th December 1917
• Commemorated at: Railway Dugout B.g. Zillebeke
  Panel Ref: VII.U.1

William Henry Spiller was born in St Ives, Cornwall in 1878 the son of William and Mary Spiller. 

He married Mary Elizabeth Dunn in June 1900 in Liskeard, Cornwall. The newlyweds are found on the 1901 Census living with his wife at Balithe (?) Cottage, Menheniot, Cornwall. He is 22 years of age and described as a handyman on a farm. His wife Mary E. is 23 years of age and was born in St. Winnow, Lostwithiel.  

He moved to Burnley and he and his wife are shown on the 1911 Census living at 15 Abbey St Burnley. William Henry is aged 32, born 1879 occupation goods checker at a railway company and his wife Mary aged 33, born 1878 a finisher (Dying and cleaning) who was also born in Cornwall. Also living at the address is Mary Read aged 26, born 1885 also a finisher and born in Cornwall and her daughter Olive aged 8, born 1903 in Devonport.  

William was conscripted in March 1917 and originally served in the East Lancashire Regiment as Private 37549.

A small draft of East Lancashire Regiment soldiers who conscripted in March 1917 and "graduated" into the East Lancashire Regiment but did not serve overseas with that unit. The 15 recruits, all of similar background (East Lancashire Regimental numbers, age and geography) appear on an alpha-numeric list created at 30 IBD, Etaples in June 1917 where they received new numbers. Those with surnames A-L (became 50224-50258) and went to 17th Battalion King's (Liverpool Regiment) and those with surnames M-Z (became 50259-50293) and went to 20th Battalion King's (Liverpool Regiment).

William was transferred to the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 50266.

He was killed in action on 19th December 1917, aged 39.

He now rests at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground in Belgium where his headstone bears the poignant epitaph:

"THOUGH LOST TO SIGHT TO MEMORY EVER DEAR".

The commune of Zillebeke contains many Commonwealth cemeteries as the front line trenches ran through it during the greater part of the First World War.

Railway Dugouts Cemetery is 2 Kms west of Zillebeke village, where the railway runs on an embankment overlooking a small farmstead, which was known to the troops as Transport Farm. The site of the cemetery was screened by slightly rising ground to the east, and burials began there in April 1915. They continued until the Armistice, especially in 1916 and 1917, when Advanced Dressing Stations were placed in the dugouts and the farm. They were made in small groups, without any definite arrangement and in the summer of 1917 a considerable number were obliterated by shell fire before they could be marked. The names "Railway Dugouts" and "Transport Farm" were both used for the cemetery.

At the time of the Armistice, more than 1,700 graves in the cemetery were known and marked. Other graves were then brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries in the vicinity, and a number of the known graves destroyed by artillery fire were specially commemorated. The latter were mainly in the present Plots IV and VII.

The cemetery now contains 2,459 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 430 of the burials are unidentified and 261 casualties are represented by special memorials. Other special memorials record the names of 72 casualties buried in Valley Cottages and Transport Farm Annexe Cemeteries whose graves were destroyed in later fighting.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.  

A newspaper report of his death gave the following information:

A Burnley Forester

Killed While Working Behind Enemy Lines

Official news has reached Mrs Spiller, of 10 Belford Street, Stoneyholme, Burnley, that her husband Private William Henry Spiller (39), 50266, King's Liverpool Regiment was killed on December 19th by a shell. He is reported to have been working at the time behind the lines, and an officer writing to his wife says it was by mere bad luck that he lost his life. The officer expresses the sincere condolences of deceased's comrades and adds:  "We are all very sorry to lose him as he was one of the most cheerful and willing men we had, and always did his best. It maybe some consolation to you to know that he suffered no pain." Pte Spiller, who was a native of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, had lived in Burnley about 11 or 12 years. He worked for 9 years at Manchester Road railway station as a checker, and then went on munitions at Cooper's. In February of last year he joined up, and at Whitsuntide he went abroad on active service. For nearly two years prior to entering the Army he was a Special Constable. He had been three times rejected by the Army authorities. "He was always a delicate physique," remarked his wife to our reporter, "but still they passed him A." Private Spiller was on the roll of honour at St James's Church. A Friendly Society man, he was a member of the Foresters' Order. There are two brothers and several cousins with the Forces. His wife had a cousin, a Lieutenant in the New Zealanders, who was killed about two months ago.

William is commemorated on the Memorial at St John's Church in St Ives.

His wife remarried in the June quarter of 1919 at Newton Abbot. Soldiers effects and pension are shown as sent to Mary E. Spiller (Brooking)

We currently have no further information on William Henry Spiller, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.