1917 was the worst year for Gidley deaths in the war, seeing nine men killed, more than double the next worst year's total of four in 1918.
William Gidley was killed in action on February 7, 1917, aged 20. He was a Private in the Border Regiment, having originally joined the Essex Regiment. He was also the one I found most difficult to trace, until I downloaded the "soldier's will" he made, leaving all his possessions to his mother, Eliza Gidley.
William was one of the seventeen children of Charles Edwin Gidley by his two wives. William was a child of his second marriage to Eliza Anderson. Eliza could also be called Charles Edwin Gidley's stepsister, being the daughter of his stepmother by her first marriage. It is not known if Charles Edwin's families by his two wives were in contact. Probably not, as he had moved in with his second wife before the death of his first wife, Jessie. Charles "married" Eliza in 1905, but they also went through a (finally legal) second marriage ceremony in 1907, after his first wife Jessie had died. In 1911 on the census form they claimed to have been married for nineteen years. Charles Edwin's ancestors originated in Buckfastleigh, Devon.
William was probably a conscript. In 1911 he was living at home, with no employment. His father Charles Edwin was a motor bus engineer of 38 Edinburgh Rd, Plaistow in East London.
William's Medal Rolls card gives no details at all of his service record, but he wasn't awarded the 1915 Star, just the Victory and British medals. Presumably he served in the Somme sector, when the Germans were just falling back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line, just before they mounted their major offensive in March 1918.
He has no known grave, but is commemorated at Thiepval.
His half brother, Sydney Herbert Gidley, was killed a few weeks later.
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