Selected Biographies

Willis, Charles – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk in 1815.  Parents: Samuel Willis (Agricultural Labourer) and Mary [née Francis].  Home: 23 York Street, Westminster, London (1851).  Occupation: Labourer [1834], Soldier (1851).  Married: Charlotte Stovey in 1845.  Service Record: Charles enlisted in 1834 as Pte.1811 with the Scots Fusiliers Guards.  In 1854 his regiment was posted to the Crimean Peninsula seeing action at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September and the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November.  Died: Private Willis died on 22.2.1855 during the Siege of Sevastopol.[1]

Willis, Charles – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 6.5.1885.[2]  Parents: William Willis (Coconut Mat Maker) and Emma [née Day] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Father to Patrick Jack Willis [b1916].  Home: Bull Lane, Long Melford (1891 and 1901), Battersea Bridge Buildings, Battersea, London [1915 to 1924].  Occupation: Agricultural Labourer (1901), Motor Driver [1915] to (1921).  Married: Rose May Hitchcock in 1913.  Service Record: Charles was attested on 30.10.1915 as Dvr.M2/135711 with N^o. 17 General Headquarters Reserve [Mechanical Transport] Company, Army Service Corps.  He was posted to France from 23.6.1916, as part of 60^th Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park, transferring to 15^th Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park when his former unit was sent to Salonika in November 1916.  From the spring of 1917 he served in a succession of Divisional Supply Columns, delivering essential supplies to both the Ypres and Somme battle fronts.  By August 1918 Charles was with 272^nd [MT] Company, moving on 7.10.1918 to 283^rd [MT] Company, staying with it until the end of hostilities.  Both units were employed in transporting shells to the large guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery.  Driver Willis remained in France until August 1919, receiving his discharge shortly after.[3]  Died: Battersea, London on 6.3.1924.[4]

Willis, Patrick Jack – Born: Battersea, London on 10.2.1916.[5]  Parents: Charles Willis (Motor Driver) [see details above] and Rose May [née Hitchcock].  Home: 36 Battersea Bridge Buildings, Battersea, London (1921).  Service Record: Patrick enlisted as Signalman N^o.2323652 with the Royal Corps of Signals in the 1930s, purchasing his discharge in 1937 to join the wireless service of the Palestine Police.  Constable Willis was travelling by bus on 6.8.1938 when it was stopped by an armed gang near Burqa, a village on the Jaffa Road, near Nablus.  The gang dragged him from the bus and shot him by the roadside.  He is buried in the Jaffa Road Cemetery, Haifa, Israel and commemorated on the Royal Signals Roll of Honour.[6]

Notes – [1] Scots Guards Service Records 1799-1939.  [2] Baptism Register 2.8.1885, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [3] Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [4] National Probate Calendar.  [5] Date of birth taken from his father’s record [WO 363].  [6] Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628-1969 [RG 36/11].  My thanks to Nick Metcalfe for his research and for sharing Patrick’s image.