2/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
William George Apperley was born in the first half of 1894 at Hempstead, Gloucester to George (an agricultural labourer) and his wife Annie (née Dawe), who was seventeen years his junior. The couple had married at Gloucester in the previous year and went on to have four children (William, Edith born 1888, Evelyn born 1900 and Harold born 1902). At the time of the 1901 Census the family was living in what was probably a tied cottage on a farm in the Elmore area of Gloucester (near to Quedgeley).
It is believed that George Apperley died sometime between the time of the 1901 and 1911 Census but that has not been confirmed. At the time of the 1911 Census, Annie was living, with her four children, at Sunnyside, 55 Granville Street, Gloucester, where she was housekeeper to the house owner and widower, George Bennett. William is shown on the census as being aged 16 and an errand boy. The newspaper shown below reported that prior to joining the Army he was employed for nine years by Mr F Charity of London Road, Gloucester.
Unfortunately no Army Service Record has survived for William Apperley. The report of his death in the Gloucestershire Journal of 25 January 1919 did impart some information on his military service. Evidently he joined the 3/5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment on 25 March 1915. This was a Territorial Force reserve battalion formed in 1915 and was based at Weston-super-Mare until September 1916. He was given the number 4026.
At some point he transferred to the 2/5th Battalion, also a Territorial Force battalion and was with them in 1917, when all those serving with Territorial Force battalions were allocated new numbers: William was given 241311. According to the Service Medal and Award Roll he attained the rank of Lance Corporal but this may have been an acting appointment, as his CWGC record shows him as a private.
The Gloucester Journal stated that he was invalided home after two years in France on 22 May 1918 and was sent to the Norfolk War Hospital, Thorpe (now St Andrew’s Hospital, Norwich). He appears to have remained there until his death, on 19 January 1919, age 24, from what the newspaper described as ‘after a long and painful illness contracted in France’.
William Apperley was brought back to Gloucester for burial in the First World War plot inside Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 4 March 2017