GURNEY William Charles

Awarded Military Medal (M.M.)

William Gurney enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 17th November 1916 at Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  On his attestation paper he gave his date of birth as 24th May 1895 in Upton on Severn, England, his current address as 39 Simcoe Street, Toronto, his next of kin as his mother, Emily Gurney, Elm Cottage, Holt Heath, Worcestershire, England and his profession as a driver.  William was 5 feet 5 inches tall with brown eyes, brown hair and a medium complexion.

William sailed from Canada with his unit on the S.S. Missanabie on 26th March 1917, arriving in England on the 7th April 1917.  On 25th May 1917 he was wounded during an air raid, receiving an incised wound to his wrist but remaining on duty.  William was posted overseas in early April 1918 and killed in action on 28th September 1918.  He was posthumously awarded the Military Medal on 13th March 1919.

The Canada War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty) records the following information on Private William Gurney:
“Killed in Action”
When kneeling down, dressing a comrade’s wounds, about 50 yards from the Sunken Road during an attack near Cambrai, he was hit in the head by a rifle bullet and instantly killed.

National Archives of Canada Reference: RG150, Accession 1992-93/166 Box 3891 – 39.

United Parish Magazine, Holt:
November 1918
Our sympathy goes out to Mrs Williams now that Jesse Williams is declared missing – though we hope he may be alive as a prisoner.  Also William Charles Gurney was killed in action on September 28th, fighting among the Canadians at Cambrai – a sore grief to his parents and relations.  This makes three Holt families which have lost two sons each.