231770 2nd Lt. William Henry Whisson British Army 1st/7th Battalion Middlesex Regiment from:Croydon (d.6th May 1917) Lieutenant William Henry Whisson, of the Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds on May 6th, was the eldest son of Mr. W. H. Whisson, 25, Arundel Road, Croydon, was born on March 19th, 1896, and was educated at the Whitgift Middle School.
In April, 1913, he joined the London Scottish, and when the war broke out he volunteered for foreign service. He went to France on September 15th, 1914, and was badly wounded in the leg at Messines on October 31st. He resumed duty in May, 1915, and was gazetted Second Lieutenant in August, 1915. He was appointed regimental musketry instructor, and carried on in that capacity until October, 1916, when he was transferred to another battalion and went to the front again on October 24th, 1916. He was made second in command of his company in January, 1917.
During an action in April his commanding officer was hit, and he took over the command, and was so successful that he was recommended for the Military Cross. After being wounded his chaplain (not thinking the wound was so serious) wrote a very reassuring letter, in which he said "May I congratulate you on the very excellent behaviour of your son whilst with the regiment and express the hope that it will not be long before he is with us again." On May 6th he died at the casualty clearing station, at which he had arrived in such a dangerous condition that all efforts to save him were unavailing. Officer friends, writing to Mr. Whisson, tell how, when he was brought in, he insisted on the wounded men who were brought in with him being attended to first, and his old head master (Rev. G. A. Jones) speaks of him, in a note to the Croydon Advertiser, as "one of the finest types of a public school boy". The Mid-Whitgiftian July 1917
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