Machine Gun Corps Badge
William John Thurtell. Died 28 July 1916
William was born in Melton, Suffolk in 1885 to Robert and Alice Thurtell. He was one of seven siblings, four boys and three girls. By the age of 16, his mother had remarried and he was working as a draper’s porter. In 1912, at the age of 27 he married Violet Dance and had three children, Audrey (1912), Eileen (1913) and Robert William (1915).
William joined the Machine Gun Corps (infantry) and quickly became a Serjeant in the 15th Company. He was killed on the 28 July 1916 during the first month of the Battle of the Somme. He is commemorated at Thiepval, a memorial constructed for those with no known grave.
Often we have found that is usually the end of the story, we rarely hear of what happened to the family following a serviceman’s death. On this occasion however, we have heard from David Thurtell, his grandson and the son of Robert William Thurtell, born in 1915. In the comments section below, David tells us of what his grandmother Violet (Nee Dance) did next. Here is an extract:
“I have had a chat with my mother and the story I have got is that William’s wife, Violet Dance, came from Bearwood where her father was the rural postman. She married William in Norfolk, where he came from and had her daughters children there. When William went to war she would have been pregnant with my father. The story is they all moved to Wokingham at that time so that she would be close to her family and when William was killed she remained there. She was a postwoman in Wokingham. The family later moved to Reading.”
The Dance’s were well known as a Wokingham family and we know of two others mentioned in the Wokingham War Memorial (William and John Dance).
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Name: THURTELL,WILLIAM JOHN Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Serjeant Regiment/Service: Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) Unit Text:15th Company. Date of Death: 28/07/1916 Service No:16303 Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 5 C and 12 C. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
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