BORN – Oswestry
HOMEFRONT – Place – Oswestry / Occupations – Agricultural Labourer
UNIT – 1 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
RANK – Private 10135
THEATRE – 1914 / Battle of Armentières, 1 Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry; 13 October – 2 November 1914.
DIED – KIA 23 October 1914. Aged 20
BURIED – Ploegsteert Memorial (CWGC)
William Grady was born in 1894 at Oswestry. By 1901 his family had moved to Salford where his father, James, was working in an iron foundry. William was the eldest child with 3 sisters and a brother. By 1911 the family had moved back to Oswestry, the home town of his mother Mary. William was not living with them – the family were living at 1 Saunders Cottages, The Cross, Oswestry. They would later move to Rope Walk. No record can be found for William in the 1911 Census but from military records he was working as an agricultural labourer. He enlisted in December 1912 at Oswestry, when he had turned 18 years. He joined 1 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, and, at the outbreak of war, went with the battalion from its posting in Ireland to embark to France on 10 September 1914. He was KIA on 23 October 1914 at the Battle of Armentières. He was listed as missing in action, his body was lost, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
Killed during the same action were Private 10135 Bert White, Private 7121 Samuel Richard Lawrence and Private 10191 Albert Foulkes (West Felton War Memorial), all on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
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