W H North

William Hubert North

Born 22 February 1872 in Walsall, Staffordshire.  Died 29 November 1915.

Enlisted in Canada

No 5722 Sapper in the Canadian Engineers Divisional Signals Company.

William North was the son of John and Mary North of Walsall.  William North Snr moved his family to Newquay at some time around 1880 and earned his living as a general merchant.  The family lived at Tolcarne Road.  In the next ten years William Snr moved into the China Clay business and the family relocated to Croydon and then Stoke Newington, but William Jnr is not with the rest of the family.  By 1901 William Snr was back in Newquay at Beachfield Crescent, but a William H North of the right age and birthplace is living in Cardiff where he is a Steamship Broker - maybe this is "our" William North.

At the outbreak of the war William had emigrated to Canada and enlisted there on 23 September 1914.  He gives his next of kin as his wife, Winifred, who is living in Newquay.  He gives his occupation as "merchant".  I do not have a photograph of William, but his service record tells us that he was 5'9 1/2" tall with black hair and blue eyes. 

William died in 1915 and is buried in Colchester Cemetery. Winifred was still living in Tower Road, Newquay at that time.  As far as I can tell, she did not remarry and lived on until 1960.