William Henry Wentworth was born in Thame in 1890, one of three children to Henry Wentworth and Mary (née Mortimer). His father was a labourer and in 1891 the family were staying in lodgings in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire.

By 1901 his father was suffering from paralysis and unable to work and the family had moved back to Thame living at 6 Church Row*. Henry died in 1903 and William’s mother Mary went on to marry Albert John Morgan the following year. In 1911 William was living with his mother and stepfather in Southern Road and was a cattleman on a farm.

Later in the year he enlisted with the Grenadier Guards. At the start of the war he was stationed at Wellington Barracks in London with the 3rd Battalion until they were mobilised with the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division. They embarked at Southampton on the Clyde Steamboat Queen Alexandra, landing in Le Havre on 27th July 1915.

The Battalion fought at the Hohenzollern Redoubt at the Battle of Loos in October and then there followed a few months in the trenches around Ypres. In late August 1916 the Battalion moved down to the Somme, where William was wounded most likely during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September.

The remainder of 1916 and much of 1917 was occupied by various tours of duty in trenches around the Somme, moving back into Flanders in the summer of 1917. On 9th October the Battalion engaged in the Battle of Poelcapelle and William was subsequently awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. His family received notification of this award only a few days before the news of his death reached them.

William, age 27, died of wounds at No 21 Casualty Clearing Station, Ytres, approximately 20 miles south east of Arras, on 28th November 1917. He had received his wounds the previous day when the 3rd Battalion attacked the village of Fontaine Notre Dame during the first Battle of Cambrai and all the officers and most NCOs of the Battalion became casualties.

15491 Sergeant William Henry Wentworth MM, Grenadier Guards, is buried in Rocquingny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, Somme. He is remembered in Thame on the War Memorial and on All Saints’ Church Memorial Board.

* Note on address:
Following the post war conversion of the row of twelve cottages into six, No. 6 Church Row became No. 3 Church Road.