5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
William Henry Jordan was born in Tewkesbury in the last quarter of 1890, the son of Henry and Julia Jordan of Quay Lane, Tewkesbury.
He enlisted at Tewkesbury into the Gloucestershire Regiment with the number 1802 but at some point transferred to the Labour Corps (246112).
His commemoration on the Cheltenham Town War Memorial notes that he was a member of the Agricultural Company.
Those assigned to regimental agricultural companies in the UK transferred to the Labour Corps in June 1917 and at their peak there were almost 75,000 men serving in these companies.
It is not known when Corporal Jordan transferred to 440th Agricultural Company but his Medal Index Card shows him as a Corporal in the Glosters and also in the Labour Corps. It also shows that he went to France on 29 March 1915 (the 1/5th Battalion Glosters went to France on that day — so possibly he was in that battalion).
Personnel transferred to the Labour Corps, who were considered unfit for front line service, due to wounds or sickness. In late 1913 William married Rebecca Hale Jones at Tewkesbury.
They lived at 23 King Street, Cheltenham. William died of pneumonia on 5 November 1918, possibly at Bristol, aged 28 and is buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a CWGC headstone.
Researched by Graham Adams 28 January 2013 with an acknowledgement to ‘Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham in the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker