PRIVATE WILLIAM ARTHUR DUTTON
CHESHIRE REGIMENT
20TH MAY 1916 AGE 29
BURIED: ECOIVRES MILITARY CEMETERY, MONT-ST ELOI, FRANCE
Soldiers' memoirs often mention those who fatalistically expected to die and those who 'knew' they wouldn't be killed. There's a chilling extract on the subject in the memoir of the rugby player Ronald Poulton-Palmer. Talking to a friend, he says, "I don't want to be killed yet; there is such a lot I wanted to do, or try anyhow". Asked by the friend if he felt he would be killed he replied, "Oh yes, sure of it". Then after a long silence he added, "Of course it's alright; but not what one would have chosen".
"Not what one would have chosen", with that massive understatement Poulton-Palmer goes off to war and is killed by a bullet, not fired by a well-aimed sniper but probably the result of an unfortunate ricochet.
According to his mother, who chose his inscription, William Dutton 'knew' he would be killed. Serving in a frontline infantry regiment his chances were certainly higher than for those in other military roles.
Dutton, who came from Runcorn in Cheshire, served with the 10th Battalion the Cheshire Regiment, raised in Chester in September 1914. On 17 May 1916 the battalion came back into the line near Mont-St-Eloi. The next day the Germans launched an attack on their positions, capturing some of the Cheshire's outposts in No Man's Land together with the strategically important lip of a crater. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting saw the Cheshires recover some of the outposts but not the lip of the crater. The next day, the 19th, they succeeded in driving the Germans out of the crater. Dutton survived all this but was killed on the 20th when continuous heavy shelling caused many casualties.
In 1901 Dutton was 15, living at home with his parents and four siblings - two brothers and two sisters - and working as a general labourer. By 1911, still living at home, he was a cotton spinners' piecer, someone who mended broken threads during the spinning process.