233641 Bomdr. William Weston British Army 169th Bgde., 400th Bty. Royal Field Artillery from:10 Stowe Nine Churches, Weedon, Northamptonshire William Weston was an old soldier having run away from home and enlisted in the Army in 1897. He lied about his age to enlist and joined the 77th Battery RFA. He served in the Boer War (seeing action at Wittenberg, Transvaal and Cape Colony) as well as in India. He left the army when he was a member of 46th Battery RFA in England in 1909.
When the war broke out in 1914 he re-enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery and deployed to France in 1914. It's unclear which units he served in, however we know from his discharge papers that he was in 400th Battery RFA, 169th Brigade RFA at the end of the war. He was busted at least once during his Victorian service and again at the end of his WW1 service, being a Bombardier at his peak, but leaving the army for the final time as a gunner.
The family story goes that he ran away from home after being caught by his headmaster fishing rather than being at school. He was expelled and was apprenticed to an undertaker and was given such a fright by the first body that he saw that he ran away from home and joined up.
He was a short man and an ardent supporter of Russia (although not a party member etc) in his views, fervently believing that the Russians looked after their elders. We think this was in part due to his experiences in WW2 when he was ruled too old to enlist (to which he took great offence). The Americans stationed nearby were also rather flash, rude etc and he took a dislike to them. During WW2 he was strafed whilst ploughing a field by a low flying (possibly crashing?) German aircraft and he bore a grudge as a result. Ironically, he was also fiercely loyal to the crown but when he spoke of the queen he meant Victoria. He had a long life and lived to see the moon landings.
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