Pte 37407 Willie Sharp

• Age: 25
• From: Shelf, Yorkshire
• Regiment: 9th Kings
• Died on Thursday 20th September 1917
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: P 31 -34

Willie Sharp was born on 19th April 1892 in Carr House Lane, Shelf, a village in Calderdale between Halifax and Bradford, in Yorkshire, the son of Abraham Sharp and his wife Ann (née Parrish).

His parents, both born in Shelf, married in 1890. His mother was a widow with children when they married; they had three children together:  Ann Elizabeth was born in 1890 but died at under a year old. Willie had a younger sister Annie, born in 1895.

Willie was baptised in Bethel Chapel, in Shelf, on 02nd October 1892.

At the time of the 1901 census his parents, with Willie, 8, and Annie, 5, are living in Carr Lane, Shelf.  His father is a wool sorter.  Also in the household are half brothers Robert Woodhead, 27, and Garfield Woodhead, 17, as well as ‘adopted’ daughter Lois Eugenia Lawton, 19, and a visitor, Mary Jane Holden, 7.

1911 finds them at 31 Carr House Road (on some records listed as Lane), Shelf.  His father, 54, is a wool sorter (skin, wool), and his mother is 62.  Willie is 18, employed as a Tramways parcel boy, and Ann, 15, is a worsted spinner.

When he was 24, Willie married Edna Brook, 22, in Halifax in early 1916. The couple lived in 13 Shelf Hall Lane, Edna’s family home. No records of children born to the marriage have been found.

According to SDGW, Willie was living in Shaw, Lancashire, about 17 miles from Halifax, when he enlisted there not long after he married.  The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for about 18 months, enlisting in about March 1916.

He served as Private 37407, 20th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment before being transferred to the 1/9th K.L.R., 2nd Platoon, ‘A’ Company. 

The Battalion War Diary records -

The battalion spent the first half of September in camp at Blanc Pignon, training.  On the 15th they marched to Audruicq where they entrained for Peselhoek and marched to No.2 Area, Vlamertinghe, in the Ypres Salient.  The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) had begun on July 31st.

Commencing at 7 p.m. on the 17th the battalion left Vlamertinghe.  It found the main road to Ypres congested with traffic of all kinds and marched on an alternate route to the Old British Front Line.  ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies took up position in the Old German Front Line, making use of the remaining pillboxes.  It was a fine night and the move was accomplished without casualties as there was very little hostile shelling.  Beginning at 7:15 p.m. on the 18th Companies moved up to the front line in preparation for an attack.  The enemy subjected the Steenbeke Valley to heavy shelling but the battalion sustained no casualties.

At 4:45 a.m. on the 20th the battalion was in position and ready when the enemy put down a barrage of 150mm and 105mm.  At Zero Hour, 5:40 a.m., heavy enemy field guns and machine guns opened fire.  The battalion advanced in four waves, with 50 yards between companies.  On the right, rifle grenades were used against the enemy and the men were able to advance by short rushes from shell crater to shell crater. The garrison surrendered and about 30 prisoners were taken.  They proceeded and took a strong point, capturing two machine guns and killing all the garrison.  They pressed the attack, encountering strong and determined opposition.  “The enemy withheld his fire until our men were 60 yards away when they opened fire with two machine guns.”  Despite this the men advanced to Gallipoli Trench where a violent hand to hand encounter took place and “the bayonet was freely used”, the garrison eventually surrendering with heavy casualties.

On the right the men were held up at Hill 35 but by 5 p.m. an officer sent to rally the men if necessary found them “manfully and cheerfully ‘standing to’ their posts”.

At about 7 p.m. the enemy launched a heavy counter attack which was broken up by our artillery and machine gun fire and not a single man retired.

The night of the 20th/21st passed quietly but hostile aeroplanes dropped several heavy bombs at 9 a.m. on the 21st and the rest of the day was tolerably quiet, enabling reorganisation.  At 4 p.m. all strong points in the sector were ordered to stand to.  A heavy counter attack was launched but “owing to the magnificent barrage put down by our artillery and machine guns, the enemy was unable to penetrate our line”.

Casualties during the operation:
Officers - 4 killed, 2 died of wounds, 8 wounded
O.R. - 26 killed, 5 died of wounds, 190 wounded, 44 missing

Willie was initially declared Missing in action on 20th September 1917. Edna made enquiries with the International Red Cross, but they responded on 13th November 1917 that they held no information on Pte. 37407 Willie Sharp.

His death was later assumed for official purposes, as having occurred between 20th-22nd September 1918.  His body was never recovered or identified and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Ypres.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

Edna received Willie’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £6, and was awarded a pension of 13/9d a week from June 1918.

Edna’s brother Clifford enlisted at age 18 in May 1917, served in the Yorks & Lancs, and West Yorks.  He was discharged with a disability in February 1919, and died in 1920 aged 21.

Willie’s mother died in 1919 and his father in 1922

Edna never remarried and died at the age of 78 in 1972.

Willie is commemorated on the following memorials -

Bethel Chapel WW1 Memorial

St. Michael’s Parishioners, Shelf

Shelf Roll of Honour

We gratefully acknowledge the generous assistance of local historian Ben Stables in compiling Willie’s biography.

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