300282 L/Cpl. William Robert Moody British Army 18th Btn. C Coy Durham Light Infantry from:Prospect Terrace, Shincliffe (d.30th Apr 1917) "William Robert Moody was born in the first three months of 1892 at Penshaw, and he was baptised on 3 April 1892 at All Saints Church, Penshaw. His parents were Robert Moody, a miner, and Dorothy Ann Moody, and at the time of William’s birth they were living at Carr Row, Penshaw. Robert had been born in Shincliffe and Dorothy in Philadelphia, and they had married in late 1890. There were two other sons of the marriage – Benjamin, born in 1894 (Durham registration district, June quarter), and James Arthur, born in 1897 (Houghton-le-Spring registration district, June quarter).
By 1901 Dorothy and the three boys were living at Shincliffe, but there is no sign of Robert, and Dorothy although referring to herself as married, also describes herself as the head of the household. By 1911 the family were at Prospect Terrace, Shincliffe, and Dorothy was a widow. William, aged 19, was an accounts clerk with the County Council and Benjamin was a pupil teacher.
William attended Shincliffe School and subsequently Johnston Technical School in Durham City, and joined the County Accountant’s Department of the County Council in 1906 at the age of 14. By 1914 William had been promoted from a third grade to a second grade clerk in the Education Section and was studying for an accountancy examination. He was described as of a quiet unassuming disposition, and was a member of the Shincliffe Church choir and the village football team.
William was among the first Durham County Council staff to volunteer for service, and on 30 September 1914 the Education Emergency Sub-Committee gave permission for 140 staff to volunteer, including William. His decision was also reported to the Finance Committee in November 1914.
William joined the 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, the ‘Durham Pals’ on 25 September 1914. He appears in a photograph of orderly room staff at Cocken Hall, taken in January 1915
18 DLI was one of the Kitchener’s Army battalions, raised from the enthusiastic flood of volunteers in the first months of the war, and it was unique in that the expenses for raising it were paid for entirely by the County of Durham.
The unit was formed at Cocken Hall and became part of the 93rd Infantry Brigade and the 31st Division. He served with the battalion during its time in Egypt (December 1915 – March 1916) and when it then moved to the Western Front.
He served with C Company of the Battalion, and was promoted to the rank of lance-corporal (although the County Council minutes and the Medal Roll Index card describe him as a private), but unfortunately his Army service records have not survived. He was attached to the headquarters staff of the battalion and was killed by a shell exploding in his dug-out on 30th April 1917 (one of four headquarters staff killed that day), and is buried at Bailleul Road East cemetery in the village of St. Laurent-Blangy, near Arras, in the Pas de Calais.
Of the twenty-two staff in the County Accountant’s Department in 1914, by May 1917 fifteen had joined the forces and William was the first to be killed. His death was reported to the Education Committee on 25 July 1917. His two brothers, Benjamin and James, were both in the Army but both survived the War." http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/Pages/WilliamRobertMoody1892-1917.aspx
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