GUNNER WILLIAM DAVID LLOYD
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
2ND OCTOBER 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: LA CLYTTE MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
The family of every soldier killed in the war received a letter of condolence from his officer. His words may only have been conventional platitudes often repeated - although one cannot criticise because how difficult must it have been to write something personal and meaningful that would bring comfort to the bereaved. So who knows how many times Gunner Lloyd's captain had used this phrase about one of his soldiers, but does it matter? However, we do know that Lloyd was a brave soldier, we know this because he had been mentioned in despatches.
His mother, Agnes Lloyd chose his inscription. You can sense her pride in the captain's accolade, and the comfort she took from it. At the age of 16, according to the 1911 census, Lloyd had been a "hall boy mansion". I think this means that he was a general helper in a block of mansion flats not in a large mansion. His father was a house painter, his mother a cook in a private house, and his fourteen-year-old sister an apprentice dressmaker. He served in the 37th Battery 27th Brigade Royal Field Artillery and was killed in action on 2 October 1917.