Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Formerly a private with the Army Pay Corps, Service No. 2844, enlisting for service (reckonable date) 19th October 1914. Posted 20th October to Lichfield to serve with the Army Pay Corps. His attestation shows that William declares that he had previously served in the 3rd Devonshire Regt., Special Reserve having been discharged 1910. He embarked for service in France embarking on the 30th July 1917 and was at Etapls until 15th August. He appears, for a short time, to have joined the "20 G.H." (possibly the 20th Battalion, Green Howards (Yorkshire Regiment) and then the Durham Light Infantry from 6th September 1917. There is a further indecipherable reference to "13th R. [...].

His promotion is just as colourful. Private, promoted to Lance Corporal and Sergeant in March 1915. Reverted to Private on compulsory transfer to 87th T.R.B.on 1st May 1917, which relates to the 87th 21st (Reserve) Bn, the Durham Light Infantry, based at Hornsea. He probably died as a private, as he is recorded on the CWGC show as a Private; his medal card show him as a Temporary Sergeant, which probably relates to his former service in the Army Pay Corps..

CWGC: Private CARDEN, W G. Service Number 44301 Died 20/09/1917 20th Bn. Durham Light Infantry

From War Time Memories Project - Familial account - Anne Etchells: "Pte. William George Carden - British Army 13th Btn. Durham Light Infantry from:Bermondsey, London (d.20th Sep 1917) My grandfather William Carden joined the army in 1914, he was a clerk and served in the Pay Corps in Lichfield. In May 1917 he was compulsorily transferred into the fighting forces, joining the Durham Light Infantry in Flanders on 30th of August 1917. He was killed in action on 20th of September 1917 during the Battle of Menin Road, when his battalion were involved in trying to secure a hill nicknamed Tower Hamlets. A bit ironic since he came from Bermondsey. His family understood he had been killed by a shell, but given the number of casualties and the sheer mess of battle it is hard to be sure.

William was 28 when he died and left behind his wife, Charlotte, a son aged 4 and two daughters aged 2 and 10 months. My father remembered the telegram arriving to notify his mother of his father's death, he recalled clinging to her leg saying "don't cry Mummy, don't cry". William's remains were exhumed in 1921 and he is now buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres. I gather from the records that it took more than 2 years for my grandmother to get a war pension, she was a milliner but with three young children I'm not sure how she managed to earn enough to feed them. She returned to Ramsgate where she had family, her husbands father was still living and I think he helped."

Masonic :

William was resident in Lichfield when made a Freemason. His career is not noted and the contribution record shows that he "Died - date not known". He had made one contribution in 1917 and then nothing, until the annotation in 1918 of his death. He was, by religion, Church of England, but joined a predominantly Jewish Lodge.

Discrepancies (Require checks, clarity or further research) :

The original entry for this legend shows a "Walter Carden" of the 7th Berkshires, which was evidently incorrect. The above entry is still under question as William George is not recorded in full on the contribution record at UGLE.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Researcher : Paul Masters