6031 Pte Willis Ormerod, 5th Bn, York & Lancs Regt

6031 Private Willis Ormerod of the 5th Battalion, York & Lancaster Regiment, died of wounds in England on the 30th September 1916. He had previously served with the West Riding Regiment (number 5449). At the time of his enlistment at Halifax, Willie was living in Todmorden. He was 26 years old, the son of Mrs Sarah Ormerod, of 106 Burnley Road Todmorden, and he is buried in St Paul's Church Cemetery at Cross Stone, Yorkshire.

Surviving service papers show that Willis was conscripted into the 3/4th Battalion, West Riding Regiment on the 4th April 1916, was posted to the 1/4th Battalion on the 11th August that year, and was transferred to C Company of the 1/5th York & Lancs Regiment on the 3rd September.

Papers dating to September 1920 reveal that Willis was unmarried and that his father was John Marshall - address unknown. Willis had no full blood brothers or sisters but did have four half brothers: John Arthur Ormerod, Greenwood Ormerod, Albert Ormerod and Ernest Ormerod; all of these men in their thirties and forties by September 1920.

Willis was wounded on the 20th September 1916 (gunshot wound to the spine) and after spending time at the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station and the 13th General Hospital in Boulogne, was transferred to England aboard the St Omer Hospital Ship on the 25th. He died at the Norfolk War Hospital five days later; the cause of death noted as septicaemia and heart failure.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC, WO 363)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission