2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
William Alfred Gill was born in the St Pancras area of London in the third quarter of 1900. He was the son of Charles Gill, a labourer and his wife Hannah Ann. He had a brother called Fred and in 1901 the family lived at Raydon Street, St Pancras.
His mother died in 1907, at the age of 38, and both William and Fred went to live with their aunt and uncle, Mrs Sarah Clare and Mr William H Clare, at 50 Fairview Street, Cheltenham.
He was educated at All Saints’ School in Cheltenham and was a boy chorister at All Saints’ Church. He played the violin and piano. After leaving school he was employed by Locke & Son, bakers and confectioners in Cheltenham.
He was conscripted into the Army in 1918 but was too late to see service in the Great War, however, he remained in the Army and served with the Army of Occupation in Germany, serving with the Hampshire Regiment.
In 1921 he was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment in Cork, Ireland. On the morning of 28 February 1921 six volunteer members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were executed at Victoria (now Collins) Barracks, Cork. The IRA staged a number of retaliatory attacks that day, the most significant being the shooting of a number of off duty and unarmed British soldiers between 6.30pm and 8.30pm: six died and five were wounded. The report of a military enquiry revealed that Private Gill and his colleague Private Bettesworth entered a music shop in St Patrick’s St reet, near Grand Parade, to buy a mouth organ. Two men with revolvers followed them in and ordered them out onto the street, where they were shot at by four civilians. William Gill was killed, whilst Bettesworth survived, wounded. Private Gill was aged 20 when he was killed.
The Cheltenham Chronicle (both on 5 and 12 March) reported the death and funeral. After an impressive service in Cork for all those murdered, attended by General Strickland, Private Gill’s body was conveyed by rail to Cheltenham, arriving at 11.20am on Thursday 3 March. At 3pm it was conveyed to Fairview Street and on 5 March a funeral service was held at All Saints Church before interment at Cheltenham Cemetery, which was attended by a detachment of the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment and the ‘Last Post’ was played: the customary firing party was absent, as permission could not be secured at such short notice.
William Gill’s grave is marked by a standard CWGC headstone — it was only officially recognised as a war grave by the CWGC in 2004
Researched by Graham Adams 6 December 2016