207728 Pte. Clive Williams British Army 1/8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment from:4 Watling Street, Wilnecote, Tamworth, Staffordshire (d.20th Nov 1918) My family is fortunate not to have endured any casualties during either WWI or WWII. After many years attending the Cenotaph in London, I realised that I wanted to focus my remembrance on one particular service person. In November 2005 I undertook a search of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission website to see if a Clive Williams had died in either War. I found 57334, Private Clive Williams, 1/8 Royal Warwickshire Regiment,
I now do all I can to research his life and keep his memory alive. I plan to visit his grave in France, but I would really like to find relatives, or perhaps even a photograph. To the best of my research, Clive did not marry, and so, like many others of his generation, he died leaving nothing but his name. I am not sure if that is better than leaving behind a wife and family, but at least in one’s children, one can survive and live on. Clive, as far as I know, has no one to remember him.
It seems strange writing from my heart about a man I never knew, who had no connection with me other than sharing a name, and who had already been dead for over fifty years by the time I was born in 1972. I fear disturbing his spirit, when he laid down his life to rest in eternal peace, yet I feel driven to search out more and more information about this stranger. I am no relation to Private Clive Williams but I share his name and wish to keep his memory alive. I wish I could find a photograph.
Clive was born on the 18th of May 1894 at Langley, Worcestershire. His Grandfather was Levi Williams, who married Dinah Lewis, 10 June 1840 at St. Leonard’s Clement, they had a child, Levi Arthur. Levi senior married a second time to Jane Shaw on the 1st of September 1862 at St Thomas’s, Dudley. Clives parents were Levi Arthur Williams, (1854 - 1909), and Emma J Godfrey, who married in the September Quarter 1874 at Rowley Regis. Clive's sister was Henrietta Amplias Swain Williams, (1882 - ?), born in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire. She married Dr Daniel McColl, in the September Quarter 1911, at Tamworth. He also had a brother, Arthur Swain Williams, (1892 - ?), born at Rowley Regis, Staffordshire.
Clive worked as a Colliery Labourer, at Pooley Hall Colliery and at Kingsbury Colliery Co. up until 1916. In 1894 he lived at Vicarage Road, Langley, Worcestershire, In 1901 then Census records him at ‘Myrtle Cottage’, Waterfall Lane, Rowley Regis, Warwickshire (now Staffordshire)
and on the 1911 Census at 4 Watling Street, Wilnecote, Tamworth, Staffordshire. In 1918 his sister Amplias lived at ‘Holy Cottage’, Polesworth, Tamworth, Warwickshire (now Staffordshire)
Clive enlisted in 1916, Tamworth, Warwickshire and died on the 20/11/1918 at No. 12 General Hospital of wounds sustained in the Battle of the Sambre. He is buried in grave S.III.W.5, at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France. His death was reportedin the Tamworth Herald on the 7/12/1918 & 14/12/1918 with a memorial message on 20/11/1919: "Make Firm O God The Peace For Which He Died". He is commemorated in the War Memorial, Holy Trinity Church, Wilnecote, Tamworth, Warwickshire (now Staffordshire), on the Tamworth & District War Memorial, Tamworth, Warwickshire (now Staffordshire) and Pooley Hall Memorial, Warwickshire.
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