1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
William Owen Meddings was born in the Parish of St Mary’s, Cheltenham in the second quarter of 1874. He was the son of Henry Meddings, a bricklayer and his wife Sarah and one of six children. It appears that between the time of the 1881 and 1891 Census his mother died, as the latter shows Henry as a widower, living at 3 Cleveland Street, Cheltenham, accompanied by William.
On 5 October 1893, aged 18 years six months, he left his job as a labourer to enlist in the Army, signing up for seven years, with five in Reserve. Prior to enlistment was serving in the Militia. He was quite short, by modern standards, standing at 5 foot 5¼ inches. He joined the Gloucestershire Regiment at Bristol on 7 October 1893 and was posted to the 1st Battalion on 29 March 1894.
His Army service took him to Malta, Egypt, India (twice), South Africa and Ceylon before he returned home on 16 December 1905. During his time in South Africa he served in the Boer War and was present at the relief of Ladysmith. He was awarded the South Africa Clasp.
He served in the UK from December 1905 until 3 November 2010, when he returned to Malta, serving there for three years, until 20 December 1913, when he returned home. He was now on his second term of service.
Following the declaration of war he went to France, with the 1st Battalion, part of the British Expeditionary Force. He would have taken part in the retreat from Mons and the fighting on the Aisne and around Ypres, before he returned home on 12 December 1914. Being 40 years of age he was probably seen as being more valuable training the new recruits.
He was discharged upon the termination of his second period of engagement on 4 October 1915 and his address on discharge was stated to be 88 Linden Road, Gloucester. He was awarded a Good Conduct Medal and his character was stated to be ‘exemplary’. He was also awarded a Silver War Badge, as a mark that he had retired from military service, which had covered 22 continuous years.
On the 29 May 1915 he had married Edith Blanche Williams at Prestbury Parish Church. According to the report of his funeral in the Gloucester Journal of 29 May 1920, subsequent to his Army service he had been employed by Gloucester Tramways Depot and he was a former member of the Wagon Works band, who played at the funeral.
At the time of his death, at the Royal Infirmary, Gloucester, on 17 May 1920, age 45, he and Edith lived at 11 Bristol Road, Gloucester. According to a recently released Pension Record Card death was a result of ‘Bank’s Disease’ and cardiac failure: although there is no evidence of it being related to his war service and he had been discharged from the Army, at the end of his term of service, he still appears in the CWGC Register as a war casualty and his grave, in Gloucester Old Cemetery is marked by a CWGC headstone.
Researched by Graham Adams 2 June 2014 (revised 3 August 2021)