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William Hiram Moss
660414, Private, Labour Corps
Formerly 4255, Lancashire Fusiliers
Died of illness, 19 June 1919, aged 34
Buried at (unknown)
Not a war grave (died of a non-attributable illness)
William Hiram Moss was born at Llandudno on 15 June 1885. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Moss. The 1891 Census of Wales records the family living at 27 Jubilee Terrace, Llandudno; William Moss (Senior) was an engine driver and William Hiram (5) was the youngest of five children, all of whom were at school. William attended Lloyd Street School which he left in April 1899 aged 13. In 1906, William married Mary Elizabeth Evans at Llandudno and their son William John Moss was born on 4 March 1907 and when he was baptised four months later, the family lived at 11 Alexandra Road. The Census for 1911 shows that the family had moved to South Wales and that William was a coal miner living at 50 Lewis Street, Pentre, Rhondda.
It would appear that the family moved to Lancashire for on 6 August 1914, William enlisted into the Lancashire Fusiliers at Bury and was initially posted to the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion with a regimental number of 4255. Within days of the declaration of war, the battalion moved to Barrow in Furness. In November 1914, William was transferred to the 10th (Service) Battalion LF. The 10th Battalion had formed in Bury in September 1914 as part of K2, Kitchener’s second new army and it disembarked at Boulogne on 15 July 1915. William received a shrapnel wound to his left side in August 1915 at Hooge near Ypres, Belgium and on 1 September 1915 was evacuated to England and admitted the following day to the Bristol Infirmary. In June 1916 he was transferred to the new 11th (Service) Battalion LF and disembarked at Boulogne on 15 July 1916.
Whilst in action with his new battalion at the Somme on November 1917, William received a wound to his left eye and on 29 December 1917 he was evacuated again to England. On 30 December 1917, he was admitted to Baugour Military Hospital, Edinburgh. Unfit for active service, on 28 August 1918 William was transferred to the Labour Transfer Centre Oswestry and was admitted to Gobowen Military Hospital with chronic ulceration of the left leg. He was discharged from hospital on 7 September 1918 and on 20 September 1918 was administratively transferred to the Western Command Labour Company of the Labour Corps, his new regimental number being 660414.
William attended a medical board at Oswestry on 1 October 1918. He claimed his ulcerated left leg had started after being injured going over some barbed wire during action in France nine months previously. The medical board noted his previous injuries from which he had completely recovered and recommended his transfer to Class W of the Army Reserve. He was officially discharged on 5 October 1918. William’s army documents reveal that his wife’s address was 26 Midway Street, Longsight, Manchester and that they had a daughter Blodwen born on 3 January 1916.
William Hiram Moss died on 19 June 1919 at the Northern Hospital, Liverpool of sarcoma of the lung. His address on the death certificate was given as 118 Bridge Road, Litherland, Liverpool and that his occupation was as a corporation labourer. The informant was W Moore of the same address “causing the body to be buried.” It is not presently known in which cemetery William Moss was interred – his details are not recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
On 4 October 1919, Mary Elizabeth Moss married Fred Tyrrell at Manchester. Both gave their addresses as 26 Midway Street, Longsight and it at this address where a widowed Mary Tyrrell was living in 1939; she died 30 years later.
Known memorials:
- Llandudno Roll of Honour
- Llandudno War Memorial
- Memorial Chapel, Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno
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