2/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
William Thomas Blackwell was born in Cheltenham in the second quarter of 1888, the son of Arthur Ernest and Sarah Anne Blackwell. Arthur was a general labourer.
In 1913 he married Tydvil Madeline Owens and the couple had a daughter, Irene Grace, born in October.
He enlisted at Cheltenham in December 1914 and was posted to the Gloucestershire Regiment’s 10th Battalion. Gloucestershire Regiment. According to his Medal Index Card he landed in France on 9 August 1915. At some point he transferred to the 2/4th Territorial (City of Bristol) Battalion of the Glosters and died at Cheltenham on 30 September 1918, whilst serving with them; he was 28 years old. According to a recently released Pension Record Card the cause of death was septic pneumonia, contracted on active service.
He lived at 5 Newbury Cottages, Queen Street, Cheltenham. His grave is marked by a CWGC headstone in Cheltenham Borough Cemetery and he is also commemorated on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial and inside St Peter’s Church (Tewkesbury Road).
His widow re-married in December 1918, becoming Mrs Bettridge.
(Acknowledgement to Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham in the Great War by Graham Sacker and Joe Devereux)
Research by Graham Adams 10 February 2012 (revised 26 July 2021)