6th Labour Battalion, Royal Engineers
Much of what is known of Pioneer Welsh’s military service is contained in a surviving Army Service Record and a report of his death in the Gloucestershire Echo of 24 December 1915. Other than this little or nothing is known of his life.
The Gloucestershire Echo report states that William Welsh was 51 years of age when he died. However, in his Army Attestation form, completed on 21 August 1915 in London, he states his age to be 45. This is almost certainly a case of falsifying his age to enable him to enlist, for the duration of the war. His place of residence is shown as being 42 Strand, Swansea and his occupation as a labourer. He was unmarried and had seen previous service with the Militia.
His posting was to the 6th Labour Battalion of the Royal Engineers and he was very soon on his way to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, on 29 August 1915. He served in France until 29 November 1915. Evidently he was not a well man and on 23 November he had been admitted to one of the general hospitals serving the BEF, following which he was returned to England and sent to the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Hospital established in the grandstand of the Prestbury Park Racecourse at Cheltenham.
He was exhibiting stomach problems and had lost a lot of weight. According to the above newspaper report he had started to improve but relapsed and died at 5.30am on 27 December 1915. He had been suffering from stomach cancer and the cause of death was stated as ‘stricture of the pylorus: carcinoma’. His total Army service had amounted to 129 days. William Welsh was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery on 30 December 1915 and a standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
The hospital arranged the funeral and burial as, according to a document in his Service Record his ‘only relation (is) a brother abroad’. By 27 November 1916 it had not been possible to trace any next of kin and the Army retained his possessions. However, the Service Record does contain a letter from a Miss C Allsopp of Ystrad, in the Rhondda Valley, acknowledging receipt of the possessions. It is not known what connection she had with Pioneer William Welsh.
Researched by Graham Adams 30 August 2020