58366: Photographs of 2683 William Albert Wenham

Photograph of 2683 William Albert Wenham, 1/5th Lincolnshire Regt. Wearing British Army Service Dress. No rank, regiment, or other insignia visible. Probably taken in France in 1916 but date and location uncertain. Sent home to family from Germany after he was captured.

William Albert Wenham was born 15 September 1890 in Hamilton Street, Grimsby, Lincs, son of Thomas (captain of a fishing smack) and Hannah. In the 1901 census the family was living in Rutland Street, Grimsby. William joined 1/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment (a Territorial Force battalion). His service number 2683 suggests that he enlisted in September 1914. He played in goal for his company and battalion football teams. He arrived in France with his battalion on 1st March 1915, qualifying for the 1914-15 Star. On 13th December 1915 he married Lillian Pearson at St Aidan's church, Cleethorpes, while home on leave. On 6th December 1916 he went on a night patrol into No Man's Land with Lt. Robert Sandall and 14 other men. At about 9.30pm the patrol was attacked by a German patrol from 77th Reserve Infantry Regiment on the Hannescamps to Essarts road (most likely somewhere in 57D NE2 E.17). William was wounded in the leg and the right elbow (probably by a grenade - he is said to have had a piece of shrapnel in his arm for the rest of his life) and captured. He was held at Wahn PoW camp until 20th December and by 21st December had been moved to a hospital in Alexandrinenstrasse, Berlin. By February 1917 he had recovered and was sent to Cottbus Camp No I at Sielow where he remained until the end of the war. After TF renumbering in 1917 he was given the new number 240601 but continued to use his old 4 digit number in all his correspondence. During his time at Cottbus he was part of a concert party known as the Bing Bong Boys. A surviving program from the "Cottbus Empire" theatre also shows him performing a solo spot as a vocalist. He was finally disembodied on 16th March 1919.